About PGCS

Publishers Genealogical Coding Service

Who and What is PGCS ?
Creator of PGCS is David W. Dole. In 1970, he created, developed and, for almost 25 years, handled the Industry
Standard Coding Identification system known as “ISCI” (iss-key) the "standard" identity coding he developed for television commercials, programs and musical compositions.

A 41-year broadcasting, research and advertising executive, he was 23 years with Leo Burnett advertising agency, VP-Broadcast Business. ISCI's 4.4-billion codes are the “standard” of television advertising – “key” to it's $30-billion-plus TV broadcast industry. ISCI codes for TV commercials are now owned by the Association of National Advertisers and American Association of Advertising Agencies – operated by the latter. The balance of 175-million ISCI codes are owned
by Michael Kammerer of the Independent Television Network.

The Need for PGCS
For years genealogists, librarians and researchers have found obituaries a prime source of factual material, helpful in genealogical and other research. One persistent problem has been not knowing from which publication or which issue an obituary was clipped. Only occasionally was the “clipper” thoughtful enough to add the name of the publication, its town
& state location and the publication date in the margin of the clipping.

Example of the Problem
Users of clipped obituaries – thousands of individuals, local & regional groups, associations and libraries, often have obits which state only “Jane Whitcum died in Smithtown” or “Robert was born in this area” or “and died Thursday at home.” “Smithtown” may, of course, be found in several states ... “this area” is completely unknown ... and with no publication
date, “Thursday” is meaningless.

Solution: PGCS !
To make published obituaries most useful to family members and of direct usefulness to genealogists, researchers and
librarians, PGCS created, developed and copyrighted a standard format, brief, computer-compatible coding with which to identify, with only 7-characters, each newspaper or other publication which publishes obituaries. PGCS proposes that all
such publishers obtain and use the PGCS code plus an additional 8-characters (in a standard format) to identify publisher
& publication date of every obit. Such coding should become “standard” so that every obituary (both those in the “Death Lists” and in “News” items) include a 15-character code consisting of:

    1 letter – geographic area of location
    5 numbers – code identification of the publication
    1 letter – publication's circulation & frequency of publication
    4 numbers – year of publication (Example: 1998, 1999, 2000)
    2 letters – month of publication (Example: JA, FB, MR, AR, etc)
    2 numbers – date of publication (Example: 01, 02, 03, 29, 30, 31)

Example: A12345E1998FB14 written as A12345E1998FB14 or as A12345E1998FB14 or even as A12345E1998FB14.