Guide to American Medical Biography

Newspaper Obituaries  --  Genealogical Sources

Newspaper obituaries and genealogical sources can provide information on less prominent physicians and nurses

Introduction: Physicians are likely to have an obituary or the normally briefer death notice in a local paper or that of the nearest large city, as are other medical practitioners. 

Typical characteristics: 

Some obituaries contain quite a bit of information about a person; others simply give the place and date of death.

Online Sources

Numerous newspapers, current and historical, are available online full text.  Some are in databases available via institutional subscription, some via individual subscription, many freely accessible.

Chronicling America offers access to many pre-1923 papers. 

Many other newspaper resources, subscription and free, are listed in 

• United States Newspapers (FamilySearch), 
• Digital Historical Newspapers (FamilySearch)
• Cyndi’s List
• Many universities have research guides listing their newspaper resources
  • Newspapers at Princeton: Newspaper Collections
  • Guide to Newspapers and Newspaper Indexes (Harvard)

Newspapers in Microfilm

Although the number of newspapers in online databases seems enormous, when you look for a particular newspaper, especially for the mid-20th century, it is often not available.  Use newspaper directories (below) to find likely papers, then search them in WorldCat and put the Accession No on an interlibrary loan form to get the microfilm.

The Social Security Death Index provides death dates for many people dying 1962- .

These directories can help identify newspapers published at a particular place and time

• Chronicling America Newspaper Directory 
• N.W. Ayer & Son's directory of newspapers and periodicals [title varies]   (1880-1982;)
• Ayer's is continued by Gale directory of publications [title varies], 1983- ).  Available online (1880-1919) 
• There exist several earlier directories as well (a research guide is available). 

 

Introduction: This is an umbrella term for documentation marking the progress of one's ancestors through the world. 

Major examples:

These are all good for getting & confirming significant dates and places as well as things like occupations/employers, where they lived, relatives and sometimes spelling.  

• Census 
• Birth, death and marriage documents
• Identity, travel or military documents

Major Tools: 

Several genealogical compendia host the major sources and many other document types.

These include

• Ancestry (individual subscription includes family tree building; institutional subscription is all documents, including more worldwide sources) 
• FamilySearch (free)
• HeritageQuest Often available in public libraries

These are examples. There are many others whose subscription models vary. 

Family histories often include biographical information. Find them local online catalogs or WorldCat with searches of the form: Subject: "Robinson family"

Finding More: 

To locate other major tools and sources check out these guides:

• The Newton Free Library (Massachusetts) has a useful guide.
• Family Tree Magazine article on databases (free)
• National Archives lists a variety of databases 
• Cyndi’s List, an enormous collection of genealogical links, has a list of obituary sources.