I need help finding old obituarys for family members!!!?

Question

I have been trying too find obituaries on many of my family members. Almost all of tehm died in the same place but in different years. The city most of them died in was Utica, New York. The first one I am looking for is my great-grandmother on my father's side, Ana (Anna) Mae (May) Tarpey (Tarpy). I found her husband, Truman A. Moore's obituary and it had her name as, Anna May Tarpy. On my granddfathers obituary it had her name as Ana Mae Tarpey so Im not sure what the right spelling is. She died between 1989 and 1991 Im not sure.
Another family member that I am looking for is Giuseppe (Joseph) DeCuffa. He died in Utica, New York in 1935. He is my great-grandfather on my mother's side.
if you can help help me thank you and also please tell me what your sources are.

Answer 1

Google is your friend in this case.

Obits appear in newspapers... SOME are online, some are not (and their records online could be just current ones).

You still can find the name of the biggest local newspaper, and email/ call them to find out what is the status of their archives.

1935 is way back.. that might involve the local library on microfilm. Old newspapers are also often kept at the state archives.



http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

this is functional for deaths in the US since about 1960ish.

It includes 3 women named Anna Tarpey, one died 1991 in New York. Unlike the other 2, it does not include the town/ zip code, but the birth on this one was 1907.

For ALL your research, you can join a county based group, or surname group, or even topical (ie Civil War). All the persons are zeroed in on one topic, so they tend to be more knowledgeable.

http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

http://www.oneidacountyhistory.org/

You may get help from someone here.



Wendy's tip for the day... what WORKS for one of your ancestors..will not be the right solution for the other one (even husband/ wife). Keep posting here. Unlike some of yahoo areas, people here are often happy to see several GOOD answers, more so than "competing" for points. There are many many sources that will come up as you work.. some online, some not. Each one is a learning key, that hones your imagination.

Answer 2

Obituaries online are not that old. In fact I view them as current events. They usually start in the mid to late 1990s. What you could do is write the public library in Utica and find out if they have the town's newspaper on microfillm and if so how much would they charge for them to research the obit and make a copy. Don't be surprise if they don't have one for 1935 or if they do it doesn't have a lot of information.

Answer 3

You can go to the local newspaper website and scan through their obit. archives. It worked for me in a small city in California. The local paper had a wealth of articles that mentioned the person I was looking for. It also had the obituary.

Answer 4

A good place to search might be the Google News Archives.

Answer 5

You can try newspaperarchive.com you do have to pay for the service though.