Minnesota has lost a wonderful genealogist

Jean Legried was one of those people you admired. I thought about her last week when I realized I hadn't received her usual Christmas letter. Now I know why, Jean passed away on January 1st and her health had been declining.

I first met her back in the early 1980s. She taught me that a disability or other challenge need not stop a person from living, helping others, or from becoming a knowledgeable professional genealogist who kept up with standards and education.

Jean was a well-known genealogist is the Norwegian research community, in Albert Lea and Freeborn County as well as in Minnesota in general. She served on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Genealogical Society with me. She taught us about the importance of handicapped accessibility at our meetings (and library) and that such access did not mean the dirty freight elevator! She was 200% correct.  People who have been active on the discussion list of the Association of Professional Genealogists and other online lists may remember her posts of past years. Jean was also an associate of the Board for Certification of Genealogists for many years.

Her late husband Peder was a fantastic cook and I remember the chicken salad he made for a meeting of a group of Minnesota professional genealogists many years ago. Jean bragged about her son, daughter-in-law and especially about the grandkids. I met her mother a couple times and she was so nice.

Genealogy has lost a special person.

Thank you to Sandy Thalmann for alerting me to Jean's obituary http://www.bayviewfuneral.com/obits/obituary.php?id=140931  I love the picture her family chose for the obituary.

Is that obituary totally factual?

How many obituaries have you read in recent years that had some sort of error? Sometimes you see the newspaper print a correction but that is rare and usually separate from obituaries or death/funeral notices. Any time such an announcement is prepared, several chances for errors loom. The same applies to all such notices in newspapers in any time period. I love the names, places, relationships, and other details but remember that these need to be verified.

• Is the person compiling the notice in shock at the loss of a relative or friend? 
• Did a family member give the information orally and someone at the newspaper or funeral home wrote up the notice?
• Was the notice written by someone at the newspaper who did not consult with the family?
• Maybe Aunt Sally only guessed at the places of residence of her sister's children and grandchildren. 
• Mispelling of names could be a product of almost anyone.
• Typos are not purposely done but do happen. It might be the original typist or that newspaper typesetter.
• Did the person compiling the notice double check the person's birth date or year?
• In the rush to get the notice published, was one of the children omitted?
• Perhaps the deceased's brother Samuel was incorrectly listed as an Uncle. 
• A follow up story that lists who attended the funeral and from where may have errors in the names and places of residence.

Now if I could only find one of those full page length obituaries I see in older newspapers for a member of my own family. How can we get descendants of those families interested in family history research? They have gold mines of clues waiting for them. 

Paying to view current obituaries?

Viewing current obituaries will soon be costing us more. Think about the fortune it costs for a family to have an obituary published in the newspaper. Now if someone else wants to check the newspaper for funeral details it might cost a few extra bucks. An article by David Brauer in yesterday's Minnesota Post gives some details about new online newspaper metering. He later posted about a way to fool the system. I don't want to give easy access to that link -- you will have to find it yourself. I love to read the current obits for free and understand today's economics, but it seems targeted at senior citizens to make a buck. Paying for access just to obits seems a bizarre way to begin. Why not sports articles or scores? Why not advertising?


The first user of the paid obit checks is LancasterOnline which says that "If you are a frequent visitor, staying in touch with our community, you may read seven obituaries for free each month."

Here's a link to another interesting column about the changing service.This includes lots of statistics on which the newspaper is basing its decision.

Just a couple days ago I told a group of fellow genealogists that it was interesting to read both the St. Paul and Minneapolis newspapers online from Friday evening until Monday morning and see little local news. It's like living, crime, accidents, and other events stop for that time period. But we know it really doesn't stop. The newspapers are only published once a day and on the weekends the staffing has been cut to the barest minimum. No longer are we being kept informed of our local area -- well, unless a TV news story or an Associated Press article can be reported in the newspaper. Truly, the local flavor is going, going, going . . .

I guess I like the local funeral homes that also publish obituaries on their websites -- and so far do so at no charge. After all, the families or the funeral home compile the obituary and send it electronically. In today's world the work for the newspaper has been cut back. 

Many newspapers will not post news about upcoming events (even with text and photos provided for free) but will send a reporter to the event and publish the article after the event. How is that helpful? So, if I ran a newspaper -- oh wait, I wear enough hats already.

So, my wish is that newspapers don't become like the airlines. Keep good customer service. Charge if the bottom line requires. But give us lots of the news we are looking for. Tell us about upcoming events so that we may attend them. If you are going to charge to publish obits and then charge someone extra to look at them, charge equally for other info. Hmmm -- do sports teams or city councils get charged to post news about their activities or events? But the grieving family does and then might have to pay to access what it paid to have published. Off my soapbox.

Another kind of electronic obituaries

Many years ago a notice about a funeral may have appeared somewhere in the town square, in the local post office, or the info was passed by word of mouth. Then we had printed newspaper funeral notices and obituaries. Today we also have online obituaries via newspapers and funeral home websites.

Change has come once again. A funeral home in Des Moines, Iowa is posting obituaries on billboards. Yes, you read that correctly. I had to reread the article about it.

They appear on electronic billboards and rotate with other advertising. I can see it now. Attend John Q. Smith's funeral followed by the ads for BBQ ribs, a local "gentlemen's" club, the all-you-can-eat buffet, and then one for the 10:00 news team. How did obituaries ever escape the Burma Shave style series roadside ads? That could have said --

Friday 4:00
Stop to see
John Q. Smith
Don't be late
Oaks Funeral Home

"Jessica Koth, spokeswoman for the National Funeral Directors Association in Brookfield, Wis., said it's the first time she's heard of a funeral home displaying service information on a billboard." Read the Associated Press article by clicking here.