Obituary Fans

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Comment by Mary Trogg on July 9, 2009 at 2:05pm

I find obituaries to be a tremendous help in filling in the recent blanks. My best source has been Ameica's obituaries, available free from Newsbank through my local library. And they do post a copyright notice with instructions on citations.

Comment by Melissa Barker on July 9, 2009 at 10:33am

Bobby, most if not all newspapers hold the copyright to their obituaries. Interesting to think about especially when the family is the one who has to pay to have them printed. Anyway, if you post an obituary online in it's entirety and exact form, you should get permission from the newspaper to do so due to copyright laws. However, the way I get around that is I post an abstract of the obituary. I only post certain facts from the obituary and not the entire obituary itself. Facts are not copyrightable, such as birth date, death date, etc. Even though I post abstracts, I still called and asked the newspaper for permission to do so. The funny thing is their response "Why would anyone want to post obituaries to the internet?" Obviously the editor I spoke to is not a Geneaholic!

Comment by Paula Hinkel on July 9, 2009 at 10:30am

Yes, obituaries that appear after 1923 are potentially under copyright. Recent obits are definitely covered under copyright laws. I have heard that some obit volunteers have contacted the newspapers and requested permission to post to obit sites, and they include that notation in the listing. I stick to obits before 1923, which are out of copyright. I'm certainly not an expert at copyright and there are "gray" periods of time depending on whether the copyright was renewed, etc. Prior to 1923 is definitely in the green zone.

Comment by Bobby Dobbins Title on July 9, 2009 at 10:21am

Do postings of newspaper obituaries on the internet need permission from the the newspaper who holds the copyright? In 2000 I posted a whole bunch from our local newspaper and received a stern e-mail lecture from another genealogist that I should not do this without seeking and receiving permission from the copyright holder. There was an implied warning that not to do so could lead to problems.

Paula, what's your take on this?

Comment by Cindy Johnston Sorley on July 9, 2009 at 3:16am

Talking about Obits. This one struck me when I read it online. I would have loved to have met this lady.


Nancy Lee HIXSON

(NANCY) LEE HIXSON of Danville, Ohio died at sunrise on June 30, 2009. She was born Nancy Lee Wood in Cleveland on April 17, 1944, baptised at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Valley City Ohio, and confirmed at St. John's Lutheran Church, Independence Ohio. In addition to being a teetotaling mother and an indifferent housekeeper, she was a board certified naturopath specializing in poisonous and medicinal plants; but she would like to point out, posthumously, that although it did occur to her, she never spiked anyone's tea. She often volunteered as an ombudsman to help disadvantaged teens find college funding and early opened her home to many children of poverty, raising several of them to successful, if unwilling, adulthood. She also enjoyed a long life of unmentionable adventures and confessed she had been a rebellious teen-aged library clerk, an untalented college student on scholarship, a run-away Hippie, a stoic Sunday School teacher, a Brownie leader, a Grange lecturer, an expert rifleman, a waitress, a wife once or twice, a welder, an artist, and a writer. She was in earlier years the president of Rainbow Systems Trucking Company, Peninsula Ohio, and she drove tractor-trailers over-the-road hauling freight commodities to startled customers from Minnesota to Florida. She was the CEO of the Cuyahoga Valley Center of Outdoor Leadership Training (COLT), where she lived in a remote and tiny one-room cabin in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Despite the lack of cabin space and dining table, she often served holiday dinners to friends and relatives and could seat twenty at the bed. She lived the last twenty-three years at Winter Spring Farm near Danville where she built a private Stonehenge, and planted and helped save from extinction nearly 50 varieties of antique apple trees, many listed in A.J. Downing's famous orchard guide of 1859 - among them such delicacies as Summer Sweet Pearmain, Sops of Wine, Westfield Seek No Further, and Duchess of Oldenburg. Her homemade cider and wine were reputed to cause sudden stupor. She befriended countless stray dogs, cats, horses, and the occasional goat. She was a nemesis to hunters, and an activist of unpopular, but just, causes. In short, she did all things enthusiastically, but nothing well. After moving to Danville, she bravely suffered with a severe and disabling disorder and a ten-year battle with lymphoma that ultimately took her life. She was often confined to the home where she continued to tirelessly volunteer and donate her limited resources to needy teens in the area, always cheered by their small and large achievements. Sympathy and big donations may be extended at this time. She was predeceased by her father Dwight Edward Wood of the Ohio pioneer Wood family of Byhalia, who died in the Columbus Jail having been accused of a dreadful crime, and by her second father Ted A. Cznadel of Danville who adopted her, loved her and raised her despite it all. She is survived by her dearly beloved son, her heart and soul and every breath, Christopher Daniel Hixson of Akron, (a sterling citizen who rose above his murky childhood with a scandalous mother), and by his loving partner Mitchell Kahan. She is also survived by her mother, the opinionated and stubborn Ann Gall Cznadel; by her brother the Rev. Dr. Thomas R. Sluberski, a Lutheran minister and professor, most recently of Rio de Janeiro; by her gentle, ecological brother Gregory T. Cznadel, a quality manager of Cleveland; by her talented sister Linda R. Cznadel Hauck, a librarian from sea to shining sea, of San Luis Obispo; by her genius nephew and godson Matthew Hauck of Minneapolis; and the other half of her heart, her patient friend and backstairs lover of thirty years, David Paul Bleifus who resides at the farm. Ms. Hixson traced her lineage directly through eleven generations to Governor William Bradford of the ship Mayflower and the Plimouth Colony, and was in the process of membership to The Mayflower Society. She was a long-time card carrying member of the ACLU, the Democratic Party, and of MENSA. The family wishes to thank Dr. Gene Morris for his care, understanding and sense of humor through it all; Dr. Paul Masci of Cleveland Clinic Wooster; and Dr. Skip Radwany and the nursing staff of the Palliative Care Center at Summa for their compassion as Lee shuffled off this mortal coil. Cremation has taken place. Immediate family and friends will gather at Stonehenge on a sunny summer day to celebrate her life. Interment is in the family plot at Brinkhaven Hilltop Cemetery in Brinkhaven, Ohio, where she will await an eventual and probable slide down the cliff to the Mohican River below. In lieu of flowers, please pray for the Constitution of the United States. "Now Voyager depart, (much, much for thee is yet in store)…" - Walt Whitman

Comment by Paula Hinkel on July 8, 2009 at 10:07pm

I use FindAGrave for posting my obits. It's free, it's easy to use, and it certainly has critical mass to make it likely that someone will look there to find their family members. I have such a backlog to enter, I could be at it for a L-O-N-G time.

Comment by Bobby Dobbins Title on July 8, 2009 at 9:23pm

What amazes me about obituaries is the difference in attitudes of libraries who are asked to do an obituary look up. I personally know one that charges $20 per look up, and I know a whole bunch in northern California and in the midwest who do it for free.

Comment by Taneya on July 8, 2009 at 8:42pm

this is an excellent idea for a group!

Comment by Paula Hinkel on July 8, 2009 at 5:16pm

Southern California Obituaries Research Plan (SCORP Website:)
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~socalobituaries/

Has lots of great ideas for looking for obituaries, even those outside of Southern California.

Comment by Sue Fitzpatrick on July 8, 2009 at 5:03pm

Actually look in several papers - San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury and the local weekly Saratoga News

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