Robin,
Personally I think more and more obits are vanishing not
because of the wackos as we could leave the address and location out
of the obit, but due to the cost or printing the obits. Decades ago,
the newspapers printed these free for the families, then they started
charging for the funeral write-ups and no one wanted to pay for that,
especially on top of the funeral costs. Now the newspaper charges a
fee for such things that were free not long ago, Obits, engagement
announcements, wedding write-ups, births, etc. It was all free, now
if you want it in the newspaper, you have to pay for them. I thought
it was crazy with what they wanted to charge me for my mom's obit,
but then it was rather long and detailed, however, they charged an
enormous amount for my brothers obit, wasn't much cheaper than my
mothers, yet I admit it was much shorter.
That's just my opinion and my experience in Sheboygan,
Debie
Calumet & Sheboygan Counties
At 05:47 PM 3/10/2010, you wrote:
My brother-in-law died a couple of weeks ago and his wife declined to
put an obit in the local paper. She feels that they contacted anyone
and everyone who would have wanted to attend the service (and it was
SRO) and she's afraid of "wackos."
Of course, the genealogist in me disagrees with her, but what points
do I use to rebut her opinions? Doesn't her (perceived) right to
privacy trump her descendants' desire to know about/document his life?
I told her I think the idea of wackos using obituaries for evil, not
good is just a media scare tactic, although I'm sure throughout time,
there have been some such incidents. I just don't think it's been very
common.
In Grant county, I subscribe to one of the weekly newspapers and post
obituaries to my website. I have no way of knowing what percentage of
area deaths are represented in these obituaries but I can tell you
that they are all very detailed.
She agreed to let me write George's obit and post it on my blog.
Hardly anybody reads it, so she doesn't have to worry about wackos and
I'm hoping Google will pick it up soon enough so that anyone searching
for him will find it. We have family members who live out of town and
weren't able to attend. They'll want to have a copy of it for their
family files, I'm sure.
But I'm wondering if obituaries are declining nationwide due to the
perception that they can and are actively being used for identity
theft? There isn't any legal requirement is there? I would think if
there was, the mortuary would have encouraged her to at least publish
a brief death notice.
Any thoughts?
Robin
Grant county WiGenWeb
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