Les,

Obituaries are such a great source of geneological information that it really is a good idea to mention those siblings and the spouses of children. In fact, you can tell the obituaries of someone who has been involved in doing genological research because when theirs appear they tend to hit on those lifetime markers that will leave information for future researchers. I don't always see grandchildren named by name, though it does happen, especially if the deceased is quite elderly and the grandchildren are adults.

The thing that seems to vary from community to community is the cause of death information. I read my hometown (Everett, WA) paper online, and always read the obituaries. The cause of death is usually mentioned, and I think this is a useful piece of information. In actuarial terms, someone researching in the future my be able to collect regional information from obituaries that will lead to more formal research (medical records for a neighborhood, city, region, etc.). This is a long-shot, perhaps, but I suspect not unheard of. Anyway, down here (Fort Worth, TX) where I'm living now they're more reticient about listing the cause of death. It's somehow "distasteful" in the sense of general Southern sensibilities, to mention something so untidy as the cause of death.

One practice that (thankfully) went away a long time ago was the habit of listing the deceased home address in the obituary. You can guess what would happen when one and all could read that John Q. Public who lived at 1234 Main Street in Our Fair City was going to be buried at 10am on Thursday morning. Family and neighbors were all going to be at the funeral, leaving the house vulnerable to burglary. I've seen addresses listed a couple of times recently, and have to wonder at the sense of the person who published the obituary. Perhaps it was someone who was elderly themselves and stuck with that obsolete practice. You can learn a lot from reading the obituaries.

SRS