This handbook has been made to answer your questions about what should or should not be included in your obituary submissions, to help you better with your contributions. Please use this as a reference guide. Hopefully, this will answer most of your questions. If you find a particular instance that's not listed in the "handbook" or there is something more you would like to see, please let your moderator know and we'll get it put into the next version.
How long you should hold on to the obits that you have indexed? We ask that you to hold them for 90 days. But, with some recent changes, we would like to clarify that a bit. We now are asking that you hold obits for 90 days from the date of the "Obituary Daily Times" digest that the obit appears in. This gives everybody ample time to sort through the listings, send, and answer queries.
A reminder that all obituary submissions should be sent in the .txt format or you can cut and paste your entries into your email note. This is the only format that can be read by both Mac and PC systems. There's no need to send your files as attachments, regular text works fine. Please refrain from sending your submissions in any form of a database or spreadsheet program. Your moderator may not use that particular program and sometimes files get corrupted when imported into a different program than what they were created in.
When you answer a request for someone for a full obit, PLEASE be sure to include the newspaper name and date with the request. Without that information, the reference is non-existant and worthless.
The question has come up regarding the indexing of "in memoriam" items. We prefer not to have these indexed. There is always the possibility that this would create a duplication in the database. How? When the person died, there was probably an obit or death notice put in the newspapers at that time and we indexed it then.
For those of you who would prefer, a fellow contributor (Mike Rice) has developed a free-ware program just for us to use while doing our indexing. Currently there are PC and Macintosh versions of this program. The programs are free, a copy of the appropriate program will be provided to contributors upon request!
Also, if you have a need for a French to English translation of an obituary that you have received, fellow contributor Jacques Trempe has developed a "mini-dictionary" to help us translate some of the most common terms found in the French obituaries:
feu = deceased
est decede(e) = deceased
est decede accidentellement = died in an accident
apres une longue maladie = after a lond illness
a l'age de = aged
fils/fille de = son/daughter of
epoux/epouse = husband/wife
premiere noces = first marriage
deuxieme noces = second marriage
il/elle demeurait a = he/she was living in
selon ses volontes = as per her wishes
la famille recevra les condoleances a = family will receive condolences
at
maison funeraire/funerarium = funeral home
le service religieux sera celebre le = the funeral service will take
place on
eglise = church
sous la direction de = under the care of
il/elle laisse dans le deuil = he/she leaves for mourning
et de la au = and from there to
cimetiere paroissial = parish cemetary
mere = mother
pere = father
enfants = children
petits-enfants = grand-children
arrieres-petits-enfants = grand-grand children
gendre = son-in-law
brue = daughter-in-law
belle fille = daughter-in-law or step-daughter (if remarried)
belle-mere = mother-in-law or step-mother (if remarried)
belle-soeur = sister-in-law
beau-pere = father-in-law or step-father (if remarried)
beau fils = son-in-law or step-son (if remarried)
beau-frere = brother-in-law
oncle = uncle
tante = aunt
neveux = nephew
niece = nieces
cousin, cousine = cousin
ami(e)s = friends
toute marque de sympathie peut etre remplacee par des dons a = all tributes may take the form of a donation to
We have taken some submissions from one of our Obituary Daily Times digests for you to take a look at. Hopefully there will be an example in there that you can more readily follow for those odd situations that come up from time to time. These can be found on the last page of this handbook.
Happy Obiting!!
Your Moderator Team:
Glenn Belcher, King Butler, Charles-Wesley Kirschner, Vivian Merkel, Sue Nunes, Peggy Perry, Jan Plambeck, Denis-John Savard, Janet Stanko, Walter Styles, Jacques Trempe, Eugene Ulrich, Jan Wheeler, and Calvin Wright
There are 6 fields for every obituary you list - no more and no less: name; age; place of death; name of publication; date of publication; tagname. We will look at each of these fields one at a time to, hopefully, give you a better understanding of what works and what doesn't work in each of these fields.
Field 1: Name
A. Last name: The person's last name is ALWAYS in capital letters. As
usual, every rule has an exception! The exception here is: MC, MAC, VAN
and ST names. These should be listed as Mc, Mac, Van and St (and then capital
letters for the remainder of the last name). Also, with these names there
should be no space between Mc and the remainder. Women with double surnames
should be listed as SMITH-JONES, Mary Ann. If it is determined through
reading her obit that her maiden name was SMITH, add that as you would
any other maiden name. The reason for this is some people were given double
surnames at birth, while others obtained them through marriage. By checking
for a maiden name, you will be able to determine which situation you are
working with.
B.
Example: Correct Incorrect
McDONALD MCDONALD
McDONALD Mc DONALD
McDONALD McDonald
DeMEO DEMEO
LaSALLE LASALLE
B. First name: The person's first name should have just the first letter
capitalized. The remainder of their name should be in small letters. No
exception applies to this rule.
C. Middle name and initials: These ALWAYS follow the first name. No
exception applies to this rule. If there is no middle name, only an initial,
it belongs here. Do not use a period after the initial. No exception applies
to this rule.
D. Titles or suffixes: These ALWAYS follow the middle name or initial.
No punctuation (periods or commas) should be used. There is no exception
to this rule.
E. Nick Names: These ALWAYS follow the middle initial and should be
listed in quotes. Ex: "Bill"
F. Maiden names: If the obit you are indexing is for a woman, and it
is obvious that she was married (at some point, even if divorced/widowed
at death) skim though the obit to see if you can determine her maiden name.
If you can, then enter the name (in all CAPITAL letters) within ( ). If
you can't determine her maiden name, then include the ( ) with 1 space
inside the ( ). If it can be determined that she was married more than
once and the obit gives you the first married name, this information should
also be entered AFTER the maiden name (or empty parenthesis) by using [
]. This gets to be rather confusing, so use the examples given below and
I think that will help you.
Examples: SMITH, Mary Jane (JONES) [ANDERSON]
SMITH, Mary A ( ) [THOMAS]
JONES, Earl E Jr
JONES, Earl E Jr
SMITH, Mary Jane
Some people have stated that trying to locate the maiden name or first
married name within an obit takes
too much of their time. Yes, it does. But, I prefer to think of it
as doing a little bit extra now, rather
than answering 15 obits later because the requester is unable to identify
which of the JONES, Mary that
you indexed is the one they are looking for!
G. Also Known as Names: Occasionally you will run into a situation
where the obit listing has more that 1 name for the same person. A good
example of this is usually found with nuns. You might see: Mary J Smith
Sister Agnes Augustine. The best way to handle these situations is to put
the secondary name in brackets [ ]. Example: SMITH, Mary J [SMITH, Agnes
Augustine Sister]
Field 2: Age
This field is probably the easiest of them all! It's always a whole number (remember your math teacher in school trying to teach us whole numbers vs. fractions?) If the child is 11 months or younger, the age is to be listed as "0". If the child is 12 months to 23 months is age, the age is to be listed as "1". The words "infant" or "baby" are NOT whole numbers and do not belong in this field. The same goes for "14 months" or "14 months and 3 days" or "at birth", etc. You get the idea! If the person's age is not known, leave 1 space and put a ; and move on to the next field. No parenthesis are allowed in this field.
Field 3: Place of Death
This field is a bit tricky, but not nearly as frightening as the Name field. It should contain the City and State where the person died. Or in some instances, the City and Province where the person died. (Go to the State/Province abbreviations page) Sometimes the person dies outside of the country where you live. In these cases, most everyone should have a copy of a "place abbreviations" file that Denis told us about quite a long time ago. New contributors may not have received a copy of this. If you don't have a copy - send a note to your moderator to request a copy In this listing you will find a 3 letter abbreviation for almost every country in the world! This is what should be listed in this field. Below is an example:
Example: JONES, Betty A (SMITH); 98; St Louis MO;
JONES, Betty A (SMITH); 98; Ft Erie ON;
JONES, Betty A (SMITH); 98; JPN;
Ok, so far this seems pretty straight forward and easy to understand. Here's where it gets a bit more complicated: Sometimes the obit may list the person's place of birth as well as place of death. The place of birth can be added into the same field as the place of death using the ">" sign - under 1 condition. The State or Province of the birth AND the death MUST be different. The listing should show the place of birth followed by the place of death. Examples below.
JONES, Betty A (SMITH); 98; Madison WI>St Louis MO; (notice NO
space between the ">" sign)
JONES, Betty A (SMITH); 98; Calgary AB>Montreal QC;
JONES, Betty A (SMITH); 98; ;
Some obits will list 3 places in their header. We do NOT use 3 place names ever. Just the place of birth and the place of death, as outlined above. As always, if this information in not available in the obit then space over 1 space and use the ;.
Field 4: Name of Publication
This is the place where you list the newspaper abbreviation that we gave you for the newspaper you are indexing. The only abbreviations you should be using is the one that you received from Denis or from a moderator. This is to ensure that they are consistent with the other publications and to see if that publication is being covered by more than 1 person. Since all obits come from a publication somewhere, this is a required field for all obit submissions. There are certain instances where you will need to add the state (or province) that this newspaper is from. This is done when the place of DEATH is outside of the state (or province or country) of where your newspaper is published. Example below:
SMITH, Albert E Jr Rev; 78; North Attleboro MA>Albuquerque NM;
Standard Times (MA);
SMITH, Albert E Jr Rev; 78; Albuquerque NM; Augusta Ch (GA);
Some people have been using "/mem" or "/det" or "OB" after their publication name. This was used to signify that these were not full obituaries. This has been deleted. We no longer wish to have you use these terms in your submissions and should not be indexing these items.
Field 5: Date of Publication
This is the method of entering dates that The Obituary Daily Times has adopted and should be followed: YYYY-M-D.
1996-6-5; 1996-6-12; etc. There should not be any months or days
that start with a 0.
Since every publication has a date, this is also a required field for
each entry in your submissions.
Field 6: Tagname
This one's pretty easy - you all know who you are. But some others of us want to know who you are also - you have access to an obit we want! Remember, your tagname should be listed in lowercase letters. Please refrain from using numerals. And make sure it doesn't include a surname, or you might get too many hits on the web search.
Here is an excerpt from a past issue of The Obituary Daily Times
ABBEU, John J; 74; Fremont CA; San Jose M-N; 1996-11-13; aeft
ABEL, Grace M (SEYBOLD); 83; Orange Co IN; Bedford Times-Mail; 1996-11-18;
ivie
ABERCROMBIE, Bobby Earl; 56; Fannin Co GA; Blue Ridge N-O; 1996-11-13;
jkg
ABLE, John; 87; St Louis MO>Hemet CA; Hemet News; 1996-11-3; sdelosie
ACEY, Eugene N; 82; Dearborn MI; Detroit News; 1996-10-8; cwkirsch
ACKERMANN, Martin Mark; 72; Santa Rosa CA; Press Demo; 1996-11-16;
rohrings
ACLAND, William "Bill"; 74; ; Victoria T-C (BC); 1996-11-16; ecross
ACLAND, William; 74; ; Victoria T-C (BC); 1996-11-15; ecross
ACTON, Lonnie E Sr; 65; Springfield OH>Hemet CA; Hemet News; 1996-11-6;
sdelosie
ACUNA, Jose M; 79; Fontana CA; San Bernardino C-S; 1996-11-12; agkrohn
ADAM, William Weir "Bill"; 77; Victoria BC; Victoria T-C; 1996-11-14;
ecross
ADAM, William Weir "Bill"; 77; Victoria BC; Victoria T-C; 1996-11-13;
ecross
ADAM, William Weir "Bill"; 77; Victoria BC; Victoria T-C; 1996-11-15;
ecross
ADAMS, Reathel (HICKS); 74; Cleveland TN; Polk County News; 1996-11-13;
jkg
ADAMS, John R; ; Eastpointe MI; Detroit News; 1996-10-8; cwkirsch
ADKINS, Oleta M (STANSBURY); 68; Oakdale CA; Modesto Bee; 1996-11-14;
abennett
ADKINSON, Gertrude ( ); 81; Odessa FL; Tampa Trib; 1996-11-19; garrus
AGEE, Cecil H; 68; Morgan Hill CA; San Jose M-N; 1996-11-13; aeft
AGGER, Carolyn Eugenia; 87; Washington DC; San Jose M-N (CA); 1996-11-12;
aeft
2001/6/23