[or-roots] microfilm obits -GOOGLE

[Leslie Chapman]

First of all you have to realize there may not have been an obituary, unless
the individual was of some prominence, at least in the eyes of the newspaper
people, or the family paid to have an obit published, there may not be one.

As to the timing, I would not be sure until I had browsed at least two
months down the line from the date of death, also check backwards from the
date of death at least a week, how sure of the date are you, if you have a
death cert or firm date in the probate stuff it should be reliable, but if
not you need to go back in time at least a week I would check a month if the
date is shaky. Also if you check prior to the date of death you may run
across an item on their illness that will give you clues to where you need
to look, maybe an item in a local column as was mentioned.

The coos county index of obits was mentioned, which lists an obit for Jens
Hansen, I found it on the microfilm and ran a copy off, then when I got home
and started to check it against my info imagine my surprise to find out it
wasn't my Uncle Jens.

So far as I know my uncle Jens did not have an obituary, I spent a couple of
days browsing in the right time frame, found several items covering his
illness and death as he had some eminence in the community, but no
"obituary"

All is not lost however, while you are browsing those papers you need to
check also the classifieds, presumably everything that would be in the
public notice is in the stuff you have from state archives, but you never
know, you might get lucky.

Possibly back tracking through community section of papers where they lived
also might lead you to luck. I know my family pretty much didn't make a move
for the last hundred years that didn't appear in some local news item, I
have several xeroxes about my grandfather Hansen going from Gardiner to
Reedsport which if you don't know your lower umpqua geography is about two
miles, takes my son about five minutes from page out for a fire run to being
at the fire hall.

But in 1920 it involved a ferry boat ride and often was an all day excursion
and it wasn't unusual for someone to overnight when they went from one town
to the other!



GOOGLE

I sorta thought everyone knew that "anything" they posted to the internet
was pretty much open to anyone else. I don't know if you have to be a member
to access the archves directly anymore, it used to be that way, but most
search engines circumvent that issue somenow. Since our archives are
accessable with membership that may be how they do it?

I have picked up a lot of information from search engines that I could not
access directly from other sites that have more stringent protection, if the
google link doesn't take you there, try at the bottom of the item where it
says "cached" often I am able to get what I need even after the site has
been taken down or moved from the cached info.

So be warned, if you put it online, ANYBODY may be able to get it.

Try posting an item that is headed with three cheers fro Osama and see how
fast the FBI comes knocking on your door!

Les C