Obituaries
When all else fails when researching your ancestors, two often overlooked research opportunities are obituaries and cemeteries. An obituary will provide more than the name and date of death for a person. Names of relatives, age of the deceased, cause of death and many other valuable pieces of information can be found in obituaries.
There are several sites that are dedicated to obituaries. A Google search for “obituary” with a very basic term, “genealogy obituaries” will provide a wide variety of sites that can be researched. Narrow your search down to newspapers; search the free and paid sites such as FindMyPast, Ancestry, My Heritage, Library and Archives Canada or other similar sites.
Many family history societies are now working to provide on-line databases for obituaries in their local area. This past summer, Qualicum Beach Family History Society created an index of obituaries from 1995 – 2002 from the local PQB News newspaper, including information on how to obtain a copy of or information from an obituary found in the index at the Parksville Museum. If you are searching for information on your ancestors in the Parksville/Qualicum Beach area on Vancouver Island, B.C., begin with https://www.qbfhs.ca/genealogy-resources/finding-your-ancestors-in-parksvillequalicum-beach-and-area/; from there you may also want to visit the following pages for more information:
https://www.qbfhs.ca/parksville-newspaper-obituary-index-1995-2002/
Hint: If the obituary has the name of the funeral home listed, contact them, if possible, as they may have more information on the deceased person that will be helpful to you.
Cemeteries
You hear quite often that a vacation for a genealogist is not a vacation if they do not visit at least one cemetery! That, in a nutshell, explains how important cemeteries are to add information on the lives of our ancestors.
Again, there are many sites with information on cemeteries, local, county or provincial. The largest and most prominent site is FindAGrave and that should be one of the first sites you check for information on your deceased ancestors’ burial site.
However, when searching for graves in Canada, don’t forget Canadian Headstones.com.
Good luck with your research!