Obituaries offer a wealth of information about your family. They have important facts about the deceased and important dates that you can use to piece together clues about the history of your family. Here’s how you can find details to research from obituaries. We all think differently and we all have different ways of processing information, which makes genealogy and ancestry research very confusing. Different historians and different family members keep records in different ways so sometimes finding the facts you need to piece together a family history are elusive.

There are thousands of databases out there claiming to have the answers, but in reality if you are disorganized, those databases are only going to make the confusion worse. And to top it off repetition in names, facts and even certain dates can cause further confusion. To clear up the confusion, here is the basic guideline of what to look for in an obituary and how to keep it all organized.

An obituary is the final record of a person’s life, information is included that can lead you to some amazing discoveries about your family. When you look at an obituary it is important that you pinpoint those bits of information and make a note of them. First read the obituary through once or twice just to get an idea of the information included. Then underline the important pieces of information. Read it over again to make sure you underlined everything of importance. Here are the things you will want to look for in an obituary: The deceased’s full name, Age, Gender, Date of birth, Date of death, Place or City of Residence, Occupation, Military Service, Church Affiliation, Life events, Awards or Accomplishments, Names of survivors, Place where funeral or memorial service is held, Place of internment

Once you’ve read and reread the obituary and you’ve underlined the important pieces of information, the next step is to organize the information in a way you can access later and have a complete understanding of what it is you found important.

Taking the time to go through obituaries carefully can go a long way to helping you find clues to your family history and connecting you to your ancestors and relatives. Names, places, and dates are just the starting point. There is so much to learn from obituaries, but you have to read between the lines. Not all the information will be there ready for you to see, you’ll have to do a little digging and a little research. Making notes and keeping your notes organized will help you get the information you are looking for.

Perhaps your great-great-great grandfather made his way here from the “old country” on a great old sailing ship with just a few pence in his pocket. What of your grandmother? Perhaps she was the local librarian in her town. Once they start a genealogy search most people find tracing their family history fascinating. What may start with the simple desire to know a few names and dates turns into nothing short of a fascinating archaeological “dig” of sorts.

There are many ways to get tidbits on your family history. Perhaps you’re lucky like me and your family never threw any scrap of paper away. You may have a handwritten birth certificate, as I do, for my great-great-grandfather who was born in England in the 1800′s. Birth, death and marriage records are generally easy to find, especially if the family members you are searching about were born here in this country. Maybe you have letters sent back and forth that have information about your ancestors in them. I have a bible that belonged to my great-great-grandmother that has in the back pages where she recorded family births, deaths and marriages.

My father was interested in our family history and had quite a collection of information about our ancestors. When my sister took over the work on the family tree that my father had started one thing she did was to contact the local historical society in the town where we knew my great-grandparents lived. They were able to give some family history as my great-grandfather was a rather prominent citizen. From there she contacted the cemetery where family members were buried and was able to get birth dates and dates of death. When she made a visit to another town where some of our ancestors lived she took a camera to the cemetery and took pictures of the tomb stones.

The internet is a great starting point for your genealogy search. You can visit a website where you can check the passenger arrival records from Ellis Island. AOL has a site where you can type in name, birth and death info on your ancestors to see if there is any information online. Some sites offer genealogy information by country. There are some sights that offer the ability to see information that others have already searched out. Some of these are paid membership sites. You may even find out that you have an unknown family member out there doing the same search on your family members.