This presentation automatically runs as a slide show. NewsBank, inc. Presents How to Search America’s Obituaries & Death Notices This presentation automatically runs as a slide show. Click here to skip intro.

You can search a specific newspaper... Click here to skip intro.

You can search by state... Click here to skip intro.

You can search a region... Click here to skip intro.

Or you can search hundreds of titles across the entire United States… This tutorial details several effective search techniques that are frequently used in America’s Obituaries & Death Notices to help you find everything from an individual obituary to a wealth of genealogical data. Click here to skip intro.

You will learn how to: Search a specific newspaper or sources across a state, region or the entire U.S. Search for an obituary or death notice by the name of the deceased Use date limiters in your searches Search for terms appearing in the text of an obituary Navigate through your results Save and send obituaries Cut and paste obituary text Re-run a search from earlier in your session Get a printer friendly version of an obituary or death notice Click on a specific topic to go to it directly, or simply click outside the topics to continue the slideshow.

Search a specific newspaper or sources across a state, region or the entire U.S. To specifically target your results, use the map to expand or narrow your search. For example, narrow your search from the entire U.S.… To the Mountain Region… To the state of Utah… To a single newspaper, The Salt Lake Tribune. Click here to go to menu slide.

Search newspapers across the country, or point-and-click on the legend or the map to search sources from a geographic region or a single state. Tip: For the greatest possible number of search results, search the entire U.S. Click here to go to menu slide.

2. If you wish to narrow your search, you can choose, for example, all sources in the Mountain Region… 3. You can further narrow your search to a single state or a specific newspaper. Click here to go to menu slide.

At any time, you can expand your search back to all sources in the U.S. Click here to go to menu slide.

Search for an obituary or death notice by the name of the deceased The America’s Obituaries & Death Notices interface allows you to include as little or as much as you know about the name of the deceased. You can search just a last name, a full name, middle initial, middle name, maiden name, even a nickname or a title. For example, you can research: Smith Jack Smythe (Jeff OR Jeffrey) Wells Paul Jones Richard F. Stone Dr. Jane Marks Myrtle “Muffy” Turner Helen Herd Bowen Click here to go to menu slide.

In this example, search the entire United States. In the “Name of Deceased” box, type the last name of the person whose obituary you want to find. In this example, use “Gold.” Note the total number of hits and the variety of full names that are returned. Click here to go to menu slide.

In a second example, narrow your search by including more terms. This time, try including both the first and last name in your search: “William Gold,” for example. Note that you retrieve fewer hits, but still a variety of names. Click here to go to menu slide.

You can narrow your search even further by including a middle initial… Click here to go to menu slide.

…A title… Click here to go to menu slide.

…Or even a nickname. Tip: The America’s Obituaries & Death Notices interface automatically allows for middle names, middle initials and nicknames. If you wish to retrieve a name exactly as you type it, put it in quotation marks: “William Gold.” Click here to go to menu slide.

Use date limiters in your searches If you know the date or approximate timeframe of the obituaries you are looking for, you can limit your search to a particular year or range of years, a month or range of months, a single date or a specific range of dates. For example, you can specify: 1989 1995 - 2000 February 2001 June 2003 – December 2003 November 12, 2005 1/1/1989 – 2/15/1989 Click here to go to menu slide.

If you have a general sense of when an obituary might have appeared, you can use a broad date range. In this example, search for the name “Elizabeth Carter.” Use a range of years as your date limiter. In this case, “2000 - 2001.” Click “Search.” Click here to go to menu slide.

Note that your results will appear in reverse chronological order. The first page of results will contain the most recent obituaries that satisfy your search and were published within your specified date range. Click here to go to menu slide.

The last page of results will contain the oldest obituaries that satisfy your search and were published within your specified date range. Click here to go to menu slide.

1. This example shows a search for the name “John Smith.” 2. If you have a good sense of when the obituary might have appeared you can add a date limiter. In this case, January 2004. By adding a date limiter, you reduce the number of results returned. This is especially helpful when searching for a common name. Click here to go to menu slide.

2. This time, choose the specific date of “January 27 2004.” Or, if you know the obituary’s exact date, you can include it as your date limiter. Continue to search on “John Smith.” 2. This time, choose the specific date of “January 27 2004.” 3. A specific date will narrow your results dramatically, and it should be used only when you are certain of the date. Click here to go to menu slide.

Notice the publication dates of your results. Often, obituaries and death notices run on more than one day. Consider searching a range of dates. Continue to search on “John Smith.” 2. If you wish to retrieve all versions of the published obituary and you know the dates of publication, you can include a specific date range in your search. In this case, choose January 11, 2004 to January 13, 2004. Notice the publication dates of your results. Click here to go to menu slide.

Search for terms appearing in the text of an obituary Often, adding search terms that would be likely to appear in the text of the obituary can help you narrow your results. Some types of terms that you might look for in the text include: The college or university the deceased attended Names of surviving relatives Organizations in which the deceased was involved Details on the deceased’s military service The name of the deceased’s hometown Click here to go to menu slide.

In this example, search for the name “Donald Jones.” Tip: Use quotation marks to find exact phrases. For example, if you know Donald Jones attended Princeton University, you can add that to the “Obituary Text” box. Retrieve your well-targeted results. Click here to go to menu slide.

Retrieve several tightly focused results. In this example, you are searching for the obituary of “John Cartwright.” You know that he was survived by his wife, Edna, so include her name as part of your search. Retrieve several tightly focused results. Click here to go to menu slide.

To see the full text of an obituary, click on the headline. In this example, you are searching for the obituary of “Leonard Perkins.” You know that he served in World War II and that he was born in Pullman, WA. Add these terms to your search. To see the full text of an obituary, click on the headline. Click here to go to menu slide.

Notice the highlighting of your additional search terms within the text of the obituary. Click here to go to menu slide.

Click on Dwight Pennell’s obituary to see the full text. When conducting genealogy searches, you may choose to search using only the “Obituary Text” box. A nationwide text search for “Pennell and Tamworth” enables you to find several members of the Pennell family from Tamworth, NH, despite the fact that family members may have moved out of state or may have taken a married name. Click on Dwight Pennell’s obituary to see the full text. Click here to go to menu slide.

By looking at the oldest Pennell obituary, you see the most complete list of then-surviving siblings. Click here to go to menu slide.

The obituary text for Ethel Mae Lane reveals that she was originally Ethel Mae Pennell of Tamworth, NH. Click here to go to menu slide.

Another way that genealogists might use the “Obituary Text” box is to search for a geographic location. In this example, “County Cavan.” This type of search will find obituaries for people who were probably born in County Cavan, Ireland and emigrated to the United States. Click here to go to menu slide.

Click on a headline to see the full text of an obituary. 1. In this example, we are using a specific date limiter as well as additional search terms to locate obituaries of victims of Hurricane Katrina. We have also limited the search to newspapers from Louisiana and Mississippi using the “Create Custom List” feature. Click on a headline to see the full text of an obituary. Click here to go to menu slide.

The results of searches in America’s Obituaries & Death Notices can make studying natural disasters that have deeply affected our nation more detailed, real and personal. Click here to go to menu slide.

Navigate through your results The America’s Obituaries & Death Notices interface includes several tools that make navigating through your results quick and easy. For example, you can move through your list of headlines by clicking on numbered pages, and you can view hits by clicking on links for First, Previous, Next and Last. Click here to go to menu slide.

For example, click on “5” to move to the fifth page of headlines. Once you have run a search and retrieved a headline list, you can move through the list using the numbered links for pages. For example, click on “5” to move to the fifth page of headlines. Click here to go to menu slide.

You can also use the links for “Next” and “Previous” to move forward or backward in your headline list one page at a time. Click here to go to menu slide.

To view the full text of an obituary, click on its headline. Click here to go to menu slide.

Click on “Previous” to move to the text of the previous obituary. From within the full text display, you can use the “Next” link to move to the text of the next obituary in your results set. Click on “Previous” to move to the text of the previous obituary. Click on “Back to Results” to return to your list of headlines. Click here to go to menu slide.

Save and send obituaries America’s Obituaries & Death Notices enables you to send obituaries and death notices that you have retrieved to one or more email addresses. You can email obituaries and death notices one at a time as you are viewing them. Or, you can store them temporarily in the Saved Articles folder and then send them to one or more email addresses all at once. Click here to go to menu slide.

Click on “Send Email” to send an article to this email address. While you are viewing an obituary, simply type an email address in the “Email this Article To” box. Click on “Send Email” to send an article to this email address. johndoe@email.net Tip: Use a comma to separate multiple email addresses if you are sending an article to more than one address. Click here to go to menu slide.

To store an obituary temporarily, click on the “Save this Article” box. Tip: Obituaries and death notices are stored in the “Saved Articles” folder for the duration of your search session. When you close your browser, the “Saved Articles” folder will be emptied. Click here to go to menu slide.

You can store as many obituaries as you want. To access your saved obituaries, click on the “Saved Articles” folder in the navigation bar on the left side of your screen. You can store as many obituaries as you want. From the “Saved Articles” folder, you can email all the saved obituaries at once. You can also remove an obituary from the folder or clear the entire folder. Click here to go to menu slide.

Cut and paste obituary text America’s Obituaries & Death Notices enables you to very easily cut and paste the text of an obituary or death notice that you find online directly into an application such as a word processor, software for genealogical research and much more. Click here to go to menu slide.

Then, click on the Edit menu of your browser and choose “Copy.” Once you find the obituary you are looking for, cut and paste the desired text into another application or program. Using your mouse, simply highlight the text you want to copy and paste. Then, click on the Edit menu of your browser and choose “Copy.” Click here to go to menu slide.

Click on the Edit menu, and choose “Paste.” Open a different application or program, such as Microsoft Word or a genealogical software package. Click on the Edit menu, and choose “Paste.” The text that you copied from America’s Obituaries & Death Notices will be pasted into your new application window. Click here to go to menu slide.

Re-run a search from earlier in your session America’s Obituaries & Death Notices automatically saves the 50 most recent searches created during your search session. This enables you to re-run any earlier search just by clicking on it in the “Searches this Session” folder. Note: Searches are saved for the duration of your search session only. When you close your browser, the “Searches this Session” folder will be emptied. Click here to go to menu slide.

To access the searches from earlier in your session, click on the “Searches this Session” folder in the navigation bar on the left side of your screen. Each search statement shows the name, the date limiter, the text terms and the region that was searched, as well as the number of hits that were found. Click here to go to menu slide.

To re-run a search, simply click on it from the list. You can also edit a search… …And clear the Search History. Click here to go to menu slide.

Get a printer friendly version of an obituary or death notice The America’s Obituaries & Death Notices interface provides a link within each obituary and death notice that enables you to obtain a printer friendly version of the full text. This clean version of the text is ideal for printing a hard copy or saving the text to a disk. Click here to go to menu slide.

From within the full text display, click on the “Printer Friendly” link to generate a clean copy of the text for printing or saving. Click here to go to menu slide.

The printer friendly version of the text will appear in a new window. Click here to go to menu slide.

Using the functionality of your browser, you can print a copy of the text or save it to a disk. Note: The details of printing and saving will vary depending on your hardware and software configuration. Click here to go to menu slide.

America’s Obituaries & Death Notices We hope this tutorial has helped you understand some of the techniques and strategies for successful research. Remember to: Select appropriate sources to search Use as much of the deceased’s name as you know Specify a timeframe as needed to narrow your results Use additional terms in the text to further focus your searches Click here to go to menu slide.