List of Things to Remember Chapter 1

Grocery List

I'm sure you've made many a list to prepare for grocery shopping!  Now, let's make a list of websites to access for obituaries.  

Why obituaries?  When you are looking for information on your ancestors, you want to begin with the event which is closest to you in history.  

That event is the death of your ancestor.  Many of us will remember that, for example, "my grandfather died when I was 11 years old."  Or, "I remember that my grandmother passed away at Christmas time the same year as the end of World War II".  So even if we don't remember anything else about that event, this will give you a date range to look for an obituary.

Why an  obituary....why is that important?  Obituaries give various tidbits of info that will help us to develop a timeline for our relative.  Birth (date and place), place of residence at the time of death, possible military service facts, church affiliations, the names of family members, and other information such as place of burial are often included in the obituary.

Useful databases (in case you don't have a particular memory to go by), are...

1. United States Death Records: FamilySearch.org is a free source online and is best utilized when you sign in for a free account.  Here is an example of what you can find at this link:
1. A Step-by-step guide to finding death records
2. Indexed death records for the United States.
3. Links to Findagrave.com, BillionGraves.com, Social Security Death Index, Ancestry.com ($), DeathIndex.com
4. Several other links, databases, and suggestions/educational materials related to this important topic.