Suggested format for labeling newspaper obit as a Memory?

Larry Olson_1

I would love some concrete suggestions on entering an obit as a memory.

What should the title include (name, title of article, name of paper, date)?

Is the event place the place reported in the obit (Havre, Montana) or the place of publication of the newspaper (Minneapolis Journal)?

Is the date the date of death Sunday (17 May 1903) or date of publication (23 May 1903)?

I'm assuming the description should include the newspaper name, if known, plus where the copy was found - e.g., Genealogybank.com, newspapers.co, or Library of Congress, Chronicaling America.

Thanks,

Larry Olson

Alan E. Brown

You ask good questions, but the answers are mostly a matter of opinion. Here's the way I do it:

• Title: I keep it simple, for example, "William Plummer obituary." Some people include a lot of information in titles, but I think it's better to keep them short (in many places longer titles are shortened with ellipses anyway) and put additional details in the description.
• Description: I always include the newspaper name, publication city, and page number if available. It can also be helpful to note where the newspaper was found: an online site or a physical location such as a library.
• Place: I use the place of publication. There are also good arguments for using the place the event happened, but I can always use the place of publication because that is known for any newspaper, whereas there are often newspaper articles where no place is mentioned. Nonetheless, you also sometimes come across obituaries in someone's files, where you have no idea what news paper it came from, so you can't use the place of publication.
• Date: I use the date of publication. The same arguments for the date of the event can be made as for the place of the event.

BWH436

I largely agree with @Alan E. Brown, but I have the opposite preferences:

• Title: I like to keep it simple as well, although for women I also account for both their birth and married names (e.g., "Mary (Smith) Jones obituary").
• Description: Completely agree with giving a detailed citation.
• Date/Place: I prefer to use the date/place of the event rather than of the publication. As mentioned above, some collections have obituaries from unknown newspapers. Moreover, whenever I find two or more obituaries for one person, I like to combine them into one image if they're reasonably short for ease of reading and/or printing. Since the obituaries could be from different towns or published on different days, using the data for the event works better.

Larry Olson_1

Thank you, both. I admit the formatting is a matter of opinion, but it's always good to have a well-thought out example or two to follow. Happy Researching, Larry