Read recent and archived obituaries and memorial notices from Danville News. (2024)

FAQs

How do I find a local obituary? ›

Many funeral homes publish obituaries on their websites. These can usually be located with a Google search on the person's name. Local genealogical and historical societies, public libraries, and some newspaper publishers maintain clipping files of obituaries.

The Web site hosts obituaries and memorials for more than 70 percent of all U.S. deaths. Legacy.com hosts obituaries for more than three-quarters of the 100 largest newspapers in the U.S., by circulation.

A death notice is a brief, factual statement that announces someone's death to the public. An obituary also includes facts surrounding a person's death, but also includes biographical information, stories, and anecdotes to help honor that person's memory.

Announce the death and include their full name, age, hometown, and date of death. Include a brief summary of their life. Mention family members who have already passed away, as well as surviving family members. Share funeral or memorial service details, including whether they are public or private events.

As funeral homes across America post obituaries to their respective funeral home website, The Obituary App organizes them all into particular cities. Now, a user can look at all the obituaries posted by multiple funeral homes in one place. There are two obituary feeds within The Obituary App.

There are several ways to do this: A General Search: To start a general inquiry, collect any identifying information about the person you believe to have passed. Type into a search engine the person's name followed by the word “death” or “obituary”.

North Dakota newspaper The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead ran what is certainly one of the shortest obituaries ever published. Accompanying a photograph and name of local resident Douglas Legler, the obit, which ran Wednesday, had just two simple words: “Doug died.”

An obituary is written to tell the story of your loved one. These will often be in the funeral program. There will even be a part of the funeral where the obituary will be silently read by everyone in attendance at the funeral.

Obituary Example: No Funeral or Memorial. [Full name] sadly passed away on [date of death] at their home in [place of passing]. They always spread joy and happiness wherever they went. As per [first name]'s request, no funeral or memorial service will be held.

When someone dies, do you have to put a notice in the paper? ›

Obituaries and death notices are not required—but notices to creditors may be. You are under no legal obligation to take out a death notice or obituary.

The family might not have a service, so they felt no need for an obituary, as obituaries are often used to provide information on the funeral. The family may have disagreements about what to include in the obituary.

When writing an obituary, leave out details that could be used for identity theft, such as the deceased's date and place of birth, middle name, maiden name and mother's maiden name. And don't include the deceased's home address.

It's important to remember that an obituary is supposed to be an announcement and brief biography of the deceased. Don't feel the need to recount every detail of their life. Also try to avoid bragging about every accomplishment or award the deceased received.

Concluding Message

In the conclusion of the obituary, special requests may be made such as, “in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to…” or “Our heartfelt thanks to the staff at General Hospital for…” Some families make the final line a dedication honoring their loved one.

Two state-level California Death Indexes can be found at Ancestry.com (a database anyone can access from any library branch and Central Library) or FamilySearch.org (a free internet database).

Obituaries in Massachusetts and other parts of New England can generally be found in the local town or county papers. Many obituaries for Boston and the surrounding area can be found in: Boston Athenaeum. Index of Obituaries in Boston Newspapers, 1704-1800.

However, many of the county libraries in South Carolina have special indexes for obituaries from local newspapers and may have the newspapers on microfilm. See the LibGuide at statelibrary.sc.libguides.com/sc-obituary-resources for information on how libraries help users with information in this field.

New York Public Library subscribes to many databases that can help researchers locate obituaries and death notices. The most useful are our newspaper databases. Oftentimes obituaries can be located by entering a person's name and week of death into the newspapers databases.