[WEB4LIB] Genealogy Obits.

[Sharon]

Hi Lin,

I would recommend scanning the obituaries and saving them on
a webpage and on cdrom.  It is important to save the entire obituary, not
just an abstract of it. You never know what info researchers will want in
the future.

An Excel database to index them might be in order, but please do not
destroy the image and replace with only an abstract.  Time of visitation and
where donations can be sent are valuable info too. Folks often want
donations to go to some place near and dear to them, their favorite charity
or whatever   Time of visitation can give the researcher a real feel for
what the family went through at the time of death.

The New Orleans list at Rootsweb has just posted their obit collection
online.  What a wonderful resource for the families.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/la/orleans/obits/

I have only been given verbal copies of the obits I have posted on my
site, so I can only guess if the information is correct.
http://home.tamapbay.rr.com/centans/funerals.html

Thanks!
Sharon Centanne
Genealogical Research Instructor, Family Archivist and Webpage Designer

Lin Light wrote:

> We are beginning to look at that task of moving our paper obituaries to
> some other format.
> Right now we clip and paste them on old catalog cards and store them in
> old Card Catalog drawers.
> We have filled over 300 card catalog drawers  and we're now running out
> of space.
> We are looking at a couple approaches, "head-down data entry" or
> scanning.
> I'm leaning towards the former because I like the idea of being able to
> control what is being entered.  Some data could be left off like time of
> visitation and where donations can be sent.
> We are also facing the task of indexing and of course storage.
> Any suggestions?
> Lin
>
> --
> Lin Light
> Head of
> Technical Services/Automation
> Herrick District Library
> 300 S. River Ave.
> Holland, MI 49423
> llight at lakeland.lib.mi.us
> Voice-616.355.3727
> Fax-616.355.1426

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