As we get closer to Halloween with zombie, skeleton and mummy costumes roaming the earth, we continue our discussion about death and its importance to genealogy. Let’s add funeral programs and obituaries to the conversation. As previously stated, it is easier to find about your ancestors through death than through life.
Death Certificates
Death certificates contain a gold mine of information about your direct line relative:
- birth date
- parents’ names and birthplaces
- occupation
- informant and their relationship to the decedent
As previous mentioned in our Health History is Family History blog, death certificates can keep you informed of family medical issues. Many diseases are hereditary and knowing this information can help you monitor your health care.
Obituaries
Obituaries are another path to get you the information you need to go further back in researching your roots. The official definition of an obituary is a written notice notifying the public of a person’s death. The notification can be in a newspaper, church bulletin or online. They are a short story about the deceased life. Funeral homes now post their client’s obituaries on their websites. Some obituaries can fill an entire page of a newspaper, especially if the decedent was famous or well-known in the community.
Funeral Programs
The ultimate to learning and discovering your family history can be found in the funeral programs! Newspapers limit obituaries to a few line while a funeral program can include everything AND the kitchen sink! They can perfectly map out your family’s tree and help scale those brick walls. Funeral programs give the decedent’s biography in as many pages as needed! Unquestionably, it is less expensive than an obituary written up in the newspaper (and longer too).
African Americans seem to collect funeral programs. While looking through my grandmother’s items, I found three funeral programs of relatives that had died 30+ years ago. The State of Virginia has made a collection of African American funeral programs from 1935-2009 available on a subscription genealogy site. A family member close to the deceased is always selected and trusted to write the funeral program and condense it for an obituary because they know intimate details about the person’s life.
Content of a Funeral Program
Depending on how close one is to their relative, they can create a one page program or a six page booklet with pictures! From all the funeral programs I have seen, I have learned:
- Parents’ names
- Spouse’s full name and marriage date
- Children and stepchildrens’ full names (spouses names in parentheses)
- Siblings
- Grandchildren and great grandchildren
- Birthplace
- Schools attended
- Fraternal organizations
- Occupation and retirement date
- Hobbies and activities
- Church affiliation
- Burial location (even mentioning if it is a family plot)
This information has been a treasure trove when researching my own family as well as those of my clients.
Keep all of this in mind if you are tasked with creating an obituary for a family member. Better yet, write a autobiography NOW that includes your important mentioned in the bullet points above plus other milestones, awards, recognitions, etc. Your relatives will thank you for it.
If you want in knowing your family history but you don’t have the time or resources to do so, I have affordable packages to do the research for you. If you book the Kati or Kubwa packages during October 2022, you will get a 10% discount plus a free gift!* Click here to contact me. Hurry – you only have 1 week left in October!!
*You must book and pay the 50% non-refundable deposit before 11:59pm on 10/31/22 in order to receive the discounted services and free gift.