newspaper obituaries

[NikiKL]

Does anybody know when newspaper obituaries began, or even when they became more commonplace?

Wondering if I might have some luck finding anything out about a man in my tree who died 1820.

thanks
Niki

[Nick29]

I think the answer to that question really depends on how much money the person in question had.  Announcements in newspapers are nearly as old as newspapers themselves, but I don't think you'll find too many 'working class' families in there, because they would not be able to afford the insertion fee.  My ancestors were all bricklayers and labourers, and I've yet to find anything about any of them pre-1920.

[NikiKL]

Good point. Answer to that is, i'm not really sure. I think he himself wasn't what could have been called "well off", but his son, or grandchildren appear to have had some money. Just depends how much.

Thanks

[barryd]

Likewise grave markers, wills, etc. The majority of people (in the revelant years) had a birth/baptism certificate, a marriage certificate (if married or lived long enough to be married), and death certificate/burial. Then came the census and most (if they lived long enough) were enumerated on one or more census. An that is it!

[NikiKL]

Is there a better source for the 1801/11/21/31 census than Ancestry?

This chap was born  c1760, and we have a few ideas of counties to look for his birth. But basically he is a needle in a haystack!  He has had several researchers look for him (inc a professional). We are all stumped.

[Billyblue]

Does anybody know when newspaper obituaries began, or even when they became more commonplace?
Niki

It depends on what you mean by obituaries.  If you are in America, I gather from comments on various boards, that this equates to death / funeral notices.
these are almost invariably paid for notices, so would depend on how affluent the family was at the time.

However, an obituary is really a tribute to a person who has died, written by a friend or relative or, in the case of very prominent people, by a newspaper reporter.  The latter are usually prepared in advance, when the celebrity is known to be either very ill or very old etc.  You might have noticed that these sometimes appear in the papers the very next day after they die.  But those written for other notable people - written by friends etc. - may appear weeks or months after the death.

Check with Wiki** for a more complete explanation.

So if your 1820 person was an important person, or even a local notable, you could easily find someone would have written an obit for him.

Dawn M

[stanmapstone]

Is there a better source for the 1801/11/21/31 census than Ancestry?

The 1841 Census is the first one that is of any practical use for family history research, however lists of names from some censuses BEFORE 1841 were kept and have survived - admittedly in a rare number of cases, but Jeremy Gibson and Mervyn Medlycott say in their booklet "Local Census Listings 1522-1930: Holdings in the British Isles" that over 750 parish listings have been found for the censuses of 1801, 1811, 1821 and 1831.
There is  "Pre-1841 Censuses and Population Listings in the British Isles" [Paperback] by Colin Chapman
In Appendix II in the book, Chapman lists the existing returns and marks with an * those which have all persons named, often with ages. He adds that to locate the custodian of the returns contact the archivist for the county or region concerned.

Stan

[GrahamSimons]

From my researching it seems not only to be dependent on having the means to pay for a notice in the "Hatches, Matches and Dispatches" columns, but also to have been a matter of quite local custom. I have searched newspapers in the Stirling area finding next to announcements, while in parts of England they've been comparatively common. Just to make things more hit and miss, some families seem to have patronised one newspaper, and other families another.