More than 150 BINDERS filled with clipped obituaries!
This collection, consisting of 71 binders, is ONE single big collection of obituaries that is alphabetical by last name of the deceased. It is a pooling of obituaries from about seven earlier, smaller collections that had been put together by dedicated volunteers over the years of the Washington Historical Society and the Four Rivers Genealogical Society. Some obituaries were put together on a single page with several other obits on the page. The multi-obit pages could not always be totally alphabetized. We made the decision to alphabetize a multi-obit page according to the name on the top left of the page. The idea behind this large compilation is that now you do not have to know the decade in which your person of interest died nor in which political township of the county he or she died. Just look in the INDEX in the volume where you would expect to find your ancestor’s obit. On of our volunteers has worked tirelessly for years to put together an alphabetical listing for all obituaries withing that volume! The INDEX also lists the death date and lists the women by their maiden name and also by any previous-marriage name that was listed in the obit!
Mary Lou’s Collection:
Mary Lou was one of the dedicated volunteers who helped to read the tombstones for the cemetery listings of the 1990’s. She then put together her own collection of more than fifty-six binders containing all the obituaries which this one dedicated volunteer was able to find using the newspapers and microfilmed newspapers. This collection is arranged the same way as the cemetery books — that is, by cemetery within the political townships. (See the Political Townships map in our Maps section of this website.)
Cemetery Listings:
Ten books of tombstone readings in cemeteries grouped by county political township: Boeuf, Boles, Boone, Calvey, Central, Lyon, Meramec, Prairie, St. John’s, and Union. Also some individual cemeteries showing plats or records of burials.
For Cemetery listings, see the most complete listing of cemeteries in Franklin County, MO, right on this website, on the Cemeteries page!
Microfilm:
If you know the death date of your ancestor, try looking in the old newspapers. See the listing of which newspapers which we have on microfilm, all obtained as copies of microfilm at the Missouri State Historical Society in Columbia, but our copies are right here in Franklin County to save you travel.
The Genealogy Library is located inside the WASHINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM through the Market-Street side door or the parking lot door.