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From:
Subject: Re: [TMG] Obits the Right way?
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 13:14:32 EST


Hi Steve,

> A little background:
> I have an extreme amount of obits (400-500) in my files. I was fortunate
> enough in that three of my surnames settled in one farming community and
> there has been a newspaper in existence since about 1902 for this area.
> Plus these families being Czech, they tended to marry within their
> community
> and isolated themselves from anything outside of the Czech community from
> about 1871 to 1930.
>

You are very fortunate. I have similar luck in that my mother collected obits
and other articles for our family. I have about 21 3-ring binders of them. My
mother even indexed them!

> I am wondering about the best way to handle the misc. information in the
> obits? And I am hoping there is someone on this list who can give me some
> advise.
>
> Should I create a new tag for the obit information? Should I put such
> things
> like the Rosary, visitation, priest, pallbearers and funeral home in the
> burial memo?
>

I created Newspaper tags. I have Newp-Obit, Newp-Wedd, Newp-Misc & Newp-Birth
You could just create an Obit tag, but if you use the other tags they are
sorted together in the tag list making them easy to find.
My obit tag sentence reads: [PP] obituary was <[D]> <in [L]>:[:CR:]<[M]>

When I put the entire obit in I put it in quotes or italics to indicate it is
a quote.

As to the other info, that's really up to you.
I have a Religion tag for funerals: [PP] funeral was <[D]> <at the [L]>

I have a Pallbearer roll in my burial tag: [W] was pallbearer at the funeral
of [P] <[D]> <[L]> <[M0]>
I only enter the pallbearer roll if they are relatives and change the
sentence accordingly. e.g.
[W] was pallbearer at the funeral of his uncle, [P] <[D]> <[L]> <[M0]>

The nice thing you can get from obits is female married names.
I use a Death-Surv tag: [P] <was|and [PO] were> survived by <[M]>
I enter the names in the memo and put the family members in as witnesses.
[R:Sib/Brother] survived the death of his brother, [P] <and [PO]> who died <
[D]> <[L]> <[M0]>
I have a female role that says her brother.
If the obit gives their residence I put an exclusion in front of the witness
sentence and add a Living-Surv tag
[P] <was|and [PO] were> living <[M]> <[D]> <[L]>
the memo will say something like at the death of his brother, Ray
in the case of a married sister or daughter I have a role
[M1] <was|and [PO] were> living <[M2]> <[D]> <[L]>
M1 is the married name
e.g. Mrs Pauline Smith||at the death of her brother, Ray

And don't forget the warning on the list a short time ago about the accuracy
of obits. But if its the only thing you have they are certainly starting
points.

When I find info in the obit is wrong I don't remove the info from my record.
I either put an exclusion mark with a note as to why the info is wrong or put
in a Note-D (discrepancy) or Note-C (conclusion) to explain. Because a year
from now when you look at the info you'll say why didn't I enter that info?

Patt Ricketts
Redondo Beach, CA

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