Preserving obituaries

[melissa huisman]

Hi!  Right now we tape obituaries to old library cards and keep them in an old card catalog.  I know there is a better way.  Can someone tell me how they store them or how they scan and index them for their patrons?  Thanks!

 

[Vern Raven]

We clip the obits out of the papers annd scan them into an obituary file on a PC. . We have the files set up by alphabet letter. So “A”s are put in the A file, etc. and they will be in there alphbetically. To find an obit one just has to go to the PC obits file on the desktop and go to the letter file and read the obit. You can file the obit in a note book too if you want also. That’s redunant but some people still like to look at a paper copy. Thats ok if you have room for the files. It’s easy to send n obit to someone via email then also.

[Clifton Patrick]

We also scan, ocr, and enter obituaries in a database with full transcripts and associated metadata (example attached). Several interesting ones have also been posted on the Hudson River Valley Heritage site. Examples:

http://www.hrvh.org/cdm/ref/collection/chs/id/1477

http://www.hrvh.org/cdm/ref/collection/chs/id/1478

In addition to the obituaries, 1524, at current count, we have also built a database of Chester people, currently at 23,380, which has been invaluable, since so many people have shared the same names over the years. Seven Ebenezer Seelys; eight Jesse Woodhulls; thirteen John Smiths; twenty six Mary Seelys and so on.

Have all this data on a computerized database allows us to respond to inquiries with just a few moments of our time.

[Ronald Heroux]

CemEdit software (which I use for cemetery transcriptions) also has a program for recording obituaries.  See http://www.ovs-genealogy.com/software/obiteditor.shtml

 

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