Lives After Death
Click here for more on books by Ruth A. Symes
[This article first
appeared in the now obsolete Discover My Past England 2009]
What could be more useful to a family historian than an
obituary? Surely, no other source of information could beat a mini-biography of
your ancestor finished off, perhaps, with an adroit assessment of his
character, and with a couple of anecdotes about his life thrown in for good
measure? Obituaries in the form we recognise them have been around since the
late eighteenth century when they first replaced public death announcements in
the Gentleman’s Magazine and they can certainly prove a goldmine for the
family historian.
Bear in mind that your ancestor does not need to have been
particularly well- known to have had an obituary in more than one publication.
My great-grandmother, Elizabeth Symes, – an ordinary working-class mother of
six who had no major public achievements – had two obituaries following her
death in March 1940: one in her local newspaper, the Stalybridge Reporter,
and a shorter one in the Manchester Evening News. From these, I
discovered that Elizabeth had been associated with two Methodist chapels, one
in Ancoats, Manchester and the other in Stalybridge. She was apparently devoted
to good works and highly regarded by the local community. Slowly a new picture
of my great-grandmother started to emerge – a woman of practical skills and
religious commitment. The obituary had brought her to life and given me several
new research leads in a way that no other source other than oral memory might have
done.
 |
| Obituary of Elizabeth Symes, Stalybridge Reporter March 1940 |
Obituaries, even in relatively modest publications, can
include some or all of the following details:
·
name
·
occupation
·
date and cause
of death
·
circumstances
of death
·
birth date
·
birthplace
·
list of
surviving relatives
·
mention of
close relatives (such as a spouse) who have recently died
·
marriage
information
·
membership of
organizations
·
military
service
·
education
· employment history
·
outstanding
achievements
·
offices held
·
hobbies and
activities
· funeral, memorial and burial arrangements
· names of pallbearers
· names of mourners
·
names of those
who donated flowers.
For ordinary people, local newspaper
obituaries are likely to carry longer obituaries than city newspapers.
Obituaries in journals again will be longer and fuller. All of these items, of
course, provide the starting point for further investigation of certificates,
graveyards and cemeteries, military and employment records, and greatly aid the
search for surviving relatives.
Where might I find my ancestor’s obituary?
You may find obituaries of your ancestors in a number of
different places.
- Only the lives of very famous ancestors will have been described in the obituary columns of national newspapers. (for instance, obituaries published in the The Times from 1785-1985 can be searched by keyword and viewed at http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/)
- Relatives of more ordinary ancestors may have paid to put short notices in local or regional newspapers. Bear in mind that your ancestor’s obituary is more likely to be found in a newspaper local to the place in which he lived for most of his life than in a paper local to the place where he died. In daily newspapers, obituaries tend to appear very soon (2-3 days) after the death of the subject. In the early twentieth century, obituaries may even have appeared in the evening edition of the paper on the day of death. Many obituaries include funeral arrangements, so they will appear during the week between the death and the funeral. If the local newspaper is a weekly one, however, make sure you look in the issues up to three weeks after the death. Remember also that if your ancestor died in particularly tragic or unusual circumstances, their obituary might be reported as a news item. Once you know exactly when your relative died, you should be able to search the relevant microfiche copies of the local newspaper in your local library. If the obituary doesn’t appear in the newspaper you are looking in, ask whether there was another local newspaper at the time. It’s possible that the library might have an on-line website with information about obituaries or even an obituary index
- If your ancestor was a member of a church, society, organisation or club, an obituary might have been written about him or her in a church magazine, company or society newsletter, alumni magazine (of a college or university), or professional journal. Remember, these obituaries may not have been published until some time after the death. The British Medical Journal (BMJ) records the obituaries of over 400 doctors per year and asks that obituaries be submitted within three months of a death. But the obituaries themselves may not appear in the journal for another two months.
- If
your ancestor belonged to a particular trade, his obituary might appear in
the relevant trade journal. Some of this information is now
available online. For example, the names of watchmakers, chronometer
makers, clock makers, and
jewellers whose obituaries appeared in the Horological Journal
between 1862 and 2002 are online at http://www.bhi.co.uk/hj/hj.htm. At the
same website is a list of obituaries that appeared in the Watch and
Clockmaker Magazine between 1928 and 1939. Copies of the actual
obituaries may be obtained for a fee via the website.
- Some
obituaries of the prominent members of various religious denominations
have been collected together and published in book form. If
your early nineteenth-ancestor was a Unitarian, for example, his death
might appear in Unitarian Obituaries from Various Denominational
Journals 1794-1850, (ed. Alan Ruston), Quakers from the South-East
might appear in An Index to Surrey Quaker Obituaries, 1813-1892 In The
Annual Monitor, (ed., Clifford Webb). To discover whether a relevant
published collection of obituaries exists, visit the academic
bibliographic website at www.copac.ac.uk. This may be searched under
keywords.
At first glance, obituaries can seem to be the answer to all
a family historian’s prayers, but be cautious, they can also be full of
traps. You should look out for:
1. Writer’s Bias. Obituaries may give the impression
that they are totally impartial (few appear with an author’s name), but, of
course, they have all been put together by someone. Some publications will have
had standard obituary formats or will have provided guidelines on what a
relative might write. If the obituary of your ancestor appears in a company
newsletter, or professional journal, it may have been written by a friend,
relative, colleague or employer who may have had his own agenda for presenting
your ancestor in a certain way.
2. Cost. Never forget the fact that relatives have
probably paid a fee per line or per word for the obituary and, in such cases,
the item may, by necessity, have stuck to a bare minimum of information which
may result in misinterpretation.
3. Bias of the Publication If your source is a church magazine, it is likely to play up the spiritual qualities of your ancestor. If it is a left-wing newspaper, it is likely to emphasise his more radical qualities. If it is right-wing, he may be presented as more conservative.
- Historical
Bias. Think about the historical moment at which the obituary
appeared. An obituary written in
the throes of the First World War, is likely to have a patriotic edge.
Obituaries of women written before the last quarter of the twentieth
century, are less likely to celebrate their working lives than their
homemaking qualities..
6. Inaccuracies and Omissions. Obituaries may be
inadvertently inaccurate (in terms of names and dates perhaps), or they might
very deliberately omit information. If someone has been married twice, for
example, his or her first marriage may not be mentioned. Likewise, if the
deceased person was separated from a spouse and living with a partner, it may
be the wife and not the partner who gets a mention in the obituary – something
that will totally skew your impression of your relative’s life.
7. Missing causes of death. Causes of death may not be given if the deceased is over 70 years old and certainly, most twentieth-century obituaries do not glory in details of an ancestor’s last moments as Victorian obituaries tended to do.
8. Large gaps in time that are not accounted for. Ask
yourself whether this might be because the writer didn’t know anything about
this part of the deceased’s life or whether it is because something happened,
that is unfit for public mention.
9. Euphemisms. These may have been used to cover up
something unpleasant – a financial disaster or period in prison, for example.
10. Clichés. Statements such as ‘Adored by all his
colleagues’ or ‘We shall not see his like again’ may be the result of a lack of
imagination on the part of the writer rather than any genuine exceptional
qualities on the part of your ancestor.
Keywords: Obituaries, European ancestors, death, England
Useful Books
Alana Baranick, Jim Sheeler and Stephen Miller, Life on
the Death Beat: A Handbook for Obituary Writers, Marion Street Press, 2005.
Nigel Starck, Life after Death: A Celebration of the
Obituary Art, Melbourne University Press, 2006.
Ian Brunskill, ed., Great
Lives: A Century in Obituaries, Times Books.
Janice Simons, Marriage
and Obituary Notices, Janice Simons, 1994
Alan Ruston, ed, Unitarian Obituaries from Various
Denominational Journals 1794-1850, Watford 1990.
Clifford Webb, ed, An Index to Surrey Quaker Obituaries,
1813-1892 in the Annual Monitor, West Surrey Family History Society,
Vol 11, 1990.
Useful Websites
http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/) Archive of The Times
newspaper from 1785 and 1985 which can be searched for free.
http://archive.guardian.co.uk/ Archive of the Guardian (1821 onwards) and Observer (1791 onwards) newspapers. A fee is charged to search this service.
http://www.bmj.com/archive/
The British Medical Journal archive (1840 onwards) which can be searched for
free.
www.copac.ac.uk = an
academic website listing all books held in British libraries and easily searchable
by keyword.
www.catless.ncl.ac.uk
- A Virtual Memorial Garden where you
can add your own obituaries of your deceased relatives.
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