Death Records Now

I’m trying to locate my great aunt -Margaret Dougherty – whom I knew nothing about until yesterday when I found a letter from a Mrs. Weston informing my great grandmother that she had died (1923) and was to be buried in the local church, the funeral was to be paid for out of the $300 she had in her bank account. With it I found a letter from margaret dated a year previous, begging her family to take her home so she could die in Ireland. I cannot seem to be able to access any online databases…i know she had been in a hospital

Where should I start?

You don’t say if Dougherty is your aunts birth name or married name.
I have done a search on ancestry.com and the only record I could find was a 1920 census listing a Margaret Dougherty aged 66,born in Ireland and living as a lodger at no.6 Bells Court,possibly flat or room 55. She was single and unemployed and unable to read or write.This was in enumeration district 122.Area5,Philadelphia,Pennsylvania. If this was her and she died in 1923 she would have been about 69/70 (1854–1923)
This seems to have been quite a large boarding house and there were quite a number of other Irish boarders there. If it was her,she may have got someone else to write a letter for her.
Cannot find a death record for her. Hope this helps.
edit: Just found some passenger lists but need a probable birth year to try to match up margaret as there are a number of people with the same name.

Many people are confused about where to find obituaries online. More and more newspapers are no longer publishing them. People are left wondering where to find recent newspaper obituaries as well as old obituaries archives.

What is an Obituary?

An obituary is a notice that announces the death of someone with a description of the person’s life and list of family members. An obituary is a valuable tool for genealogists and family tree researchers because it contains clues about the deceased and the deceased’s family. The obituary is often written by the funeral home or mortuary, but many people choose to write an obituary for their loved one that is published in the newspaper and included in the funeral program.

Online Obituary Search

Genealogists prefer online obituary search for family tree and ancestry search when they have no previous knowledge of the deceased. If they don’t know where to begin, the large databases available online can help to narrow the search down to specific geographic locations or archives. You can find what you need, but it will take some time. Many obituaries and death notices from state vital records have not been uploaded online yet so you may have to continue your search through traditional means, including libraries, city archives, and public records.

Online Obituaries Search of databases

If you are researching obituaries for genealogy and family tree research, a good place to start your search for obituaries is on the Internet. There are several free and commercial databases where you can find death records and newspaper obituaries. Most of the commercial databases have reasonable fees that cover costs of security, and reliability.

Where to begin your search for Newspaper Obituaries Online?

Even though obituaries seem to be disappearing from your local newspaper, the best place to start your online obituary research is in Newspaper Obituaries. Many newspapers publish obituaries online but not in their paper editions. They have online databases of recent, current and archived obituaries. In some cases you have to have a membership, but most of them are free, you just have to sign up.

Free Databases of Old Archived Obituaries

There are several databases out there dedicated to keeping genealogy free. They are hard to find and are often not the first place people look. They are archived newspaper obituaries and death notices, and old newspaper obituaries, and old obituaries archives. Many of these archives are free to search and have been accumulating data for years. If you have a little bit of information about where to look and the family name you’ll have access to a huge free database.

What you need for searching Newspaper Obituaries Online?

You will have the most success if you know a bit of information about the person or people you are researching. Online searches can bring up thousands of search results if you enter information that is too vague or incomplete. This will make your job much more time consuming to have to go through all these records to find the one that you need. If it’s possible, before you start your search find as much of the following as you can:

• Last Name
• First Name
• City and state where deceased lived
• Birth Year

Free Archive Obituaries and Death Notices and Ancestry Search Advice

Many public records and obituaries databases charge a fee to search their archives. You have to buy a membership that lasts for a certain length of time. But the same information is often available for free; you just have to know where to look for it. To sort through some of the confusion, start your search at ObituariesHelp.org. This website offers advice and help identifying what you are looking for and if you really need to purchase a membership or if you can find the obituaries you need for free.

Melanie Walters

A Top Contributor, Wendy C in genealogy suggested I put this name out to see if anyone could help me find an obituary, cause of death , place of burial, or place of death as I have tried many avenues and can find nothing…Anthony J Vinnick,date of death Nov.9th 1992 date of birth Aug 28 1936 last residence Effort Pennsylvania/DOB may also be Sep 29 1935 but we are very sure this has been a recorded error
OH MY GOSH…i’m going to cry! I have tried so hard to find something with what little I know about websites etc. Your info has got to be right. Yes he has lived there also but all I have ever had is what Intelius has given me. I am from Canada I’ll see what I can do next. Any further info will be appreciated from any one. Thank you so so so so so MUCH!!!
Now what? Why can’t I type anything into the form for centrecountygenealogy…I’m lost again.

I’m in Texas, BUT have found him listed in an obituary index at this URL: www.eastonpl.org/ObitPDF/1992.pdf

The PDF displays this information:
Vinnick Anthony 11/11/1992 C-11 (meaning that his obituary was on page C-11 of the 11/11/1992 newspaper)

That website is for the Easton Area Public Library (515 Church Street, Easton, PA 18042 – 3587 phone 610-258-2917)

Perhaps you are in that area, or a phone call to the library could get further help. (The library’s website requires a local library card to search their online databases).

Best of luck, I hope that helps!

added later:
No need to cry, I’m just glad I could help! :o)
There is a newspaper in Easton called Easton Express-Times, but their obituary archives are only back to 2004 online. (see http://www.eastonpl.org/obituary_index.htm, they provide instructions on how to obtain actual copies of obituaries in the index).

Check out this site, it lets you submit a request to Pennsylvania Obituary Lookup Volunteers: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~obitl/volpa.html?cj=1&o_xid=0001177077&o_lid=0001177077

I think you’re almost there! Don’t EVER give up! :o)