I don't remember now if I had to provide a death certificate when I went down to the paper, but I had one, so if they asked it wasn't a problem. I found a good photo of dad also. It wasn't a real long obituary, and I don't remember running it more than a couple of days, so mine wasn't necessarily a model. It was too far back for it it be online now.

My mother's first cousin died in October of 2003 and hers was excellent. This link should take you to Olive Maurstad's obit. Oct. 8 and 9, 2003 in the paper. They did what many of them do--ran the full obit for a couple of days then truncated it to just the first paragraph or so and the time and place of the memorial.

Those who don't think genological information is important obviously don't need to include it, but it should not be dismissed as unimportant or frivolous. Just try finding information about someone who died a long time ago. Look through the newspapers or microfiche for the obituary and you'll find them to be treasure troves. Accuracy can be an issue, when people write these in times of stress. But better to have something than nothing, and hopefully most of it will be correct.

SRS