Old Obituary notices?

Do you know of a site where I can, for FREE, get obit info? I just found out an old friend from HS died some time ago, no idea of year, but we did grad from HS 1966. I found some sites for $79-$200 per year. I only know her maiden name. thanks.

Unless the death was relatively recent (within the past five years or so) AND the newspaper where it was reported has had a website for that long, its unlikely the info was scanned into any online sources. (And a lot of newspapers require you to be a current subscriber to the actual paper OR pay a fee to access their archives.)

Unless that pans out, your best bet may be to go to the town where the friend died, and use their library's microfiche to go back and find the obit. Your high school may have information on the month/year of death to help you narrow it down, if they can release it (which may depend on if you know someone in the office ;o)

No matter how you slice it, it's probably going to take some good ole' "shoe leather" to track it down, or $$$ to pay someone else to do the research.

www.rootsweb.com might have it or send you to a site that will, I have been able to trace 50 year old and older papers on family this way. It might not help but then again it might.

If you have to go to the micofiche I have found that the bigger U's have the best selection of Newspapers and such that is where I would start.

Mitch

If you know the cemetery where he or she is buried some of them have listing of who is buried there on line. I found a lot of my relatives in a TN that way.

have you tried just typing in the name and city into your browswer or google for a search? you might be surprised what you can get that way... find it online, print it out yourself....

Do you have a Mormon church in your area? They all have libraries for genealogical research, and are not TOO difficult to use. Also, the folks who work there are more than thrilled to help a novice. I know. I used to be one. ( Novice, not Mormon )

You do not have to be a Mormon to use the Library, and they do not care what you believe. Look Latter Day Saints up in the Yellow Pages and give them a call.

All the Mormon info is also on the web site you have to make it work for you but it is easier then heading over there and looking.

anastatia, you might try contacting your high school about who is in charge of your high school reunions. During class reunions they do post newspaper articles about births, deaths, marriages, etc. most anything that is in the newspaper.

The other place you might try is www.legacy.com Depending on how long ago it was, you may be able to pull up something there.

One more thing, if you know what town your classmate died in or what funeral home handled the arrangements, you might contact the funeral home and ask them if they have the obituary from the paper. They also usually keep them for their records.

If you aren't sure of the date, you could check your local office of statistics.

There are really many ways to find this out if you have a little bit of info.

Good luck,
Kathy

Boy it would be alot easier if you knew her married name if she was married. If I was doing the searching, I would try to track that down first if you can. Can you call an old classmate or a family friend?

Then go to the social security death index here and type in her married name:

http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/

You may get several people with the same name but at least you can start narrowing it down that way.

You might check DG to see which gardeners live in the town where your friend died. Our library keeps obits and so does our cemetery. Maybe one of the gardeners would do a little investigating for you.

Good thinking!!

Hey Anastatia...I just got to thinking, why don't you give us the info as well and perhaps we can help you look. Two heads are better than one :) Kathy

I have no idea if she married or not. I do not know where she lived when she died. She grew up in Camas, Washington. Diane Lapore was her name. Her father was a chemist with Crown Zellerbach. Both of her parents are dead.

:) Will see what I can find out for you. I love research :)

MM, I do to, when I have the time. It's like painting (walls, etc). Once I get started don't make me stop to fix dinner, etc.