can anyone find an obit for Lyle Smith died 2001 in New Hampshire?

Question

Lyle Marshall Smith lived all his life in New Hampshire, it seems, and he is quite well documented (see profile).  I'm just looking for an obituary.  He is on Find A Grave, but that site is not quoting an obituary.

Comments

I updated the linked profile to the correct ID.

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Thanks so much, Steven!  My browser seems to give a little trouble with pasting that ID in there.  It goes to some self-population from the list of everything that has ever been entered into that field before...it was saying Welch-something, and when i got it switched to Smith i thought i was good to go.  Apparently not! Appreciate your detective work in figuring out the right one!

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It is also possible there is no obituary.

A few years ago I put an obituary in two newspapers in California. One was in the Central Valley, and the other in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was shocked at the cost: the less expensive of the two was over $200, and the other was over $500. Neither one of these had a picture.

So, if the family was of modest means an obituary could have simply been too expensive.

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OMG! That is a shocking price.  I didn't realize there was any charge at all!

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I like to get obituaries when I can, but I do understand that they have gotten to be quite expensive, and I do understand the limitations of having them put in the papers.

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Shirlea, in the old days obituaries were free (around here, anyway; I am also in California) and the newspapers sometimes even wrote them for you.  Now you pay--and I can't blame newspapers, so many of which are facing cost pressures--and you get to write your own.  

Oh...I just thought of something:  When my mother died, her alma mater, Antioch College, published a nice obituary for free.  I can't find it on-line now, but I have seen obituaries published by colleges.  So if he went to college, and you know where, maybe that would help.  I think some high schools have alumni associations as well.

Answer 1

Shirlea, you may not have needed me to do this, but just to save someone else the trouble...I did not find an obituary on Ancestry, genealogybank.com, or newspapers.com, or by Googling.

I suppose you would have said if he had any nicknames that he could have been listed by.

I have found that obituaries are more likely to be published for people if their spouses are living (i.e. usually by their spouses, I imagine).  I didn't look into the wives you listed, but maybe if you created profiles for them you could turn up something.

The only other thing I'd recommend is looking into local newspapers of the area.  I can't recall ever having done any New Hampshire research and I didn't look into that possibility.

Comments

Thanks, Julie!  I think it is very helpful to list the places that you have already looked...I should have said that i couldn't turn it up at Ancestry or by googling. I don't have access to the other repositories you mentioned, and so i'm very grateful to you for looking there!

I think the wives may still be alive, so i'm reluctant to make profiles for them...hopefully it's not too bad to mention them:  that much info is publicly available already.

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Oh, right, I didn't think of that.  I usually (nearly always) add profiles to my Ancestry tree before bringing them to WT, so  I can create all the living profiles I want and that won't violate anyone's privacy.  If the wives are living, on the one hand you'll probably find less information about them, but on the other hand more reason to think that (at least the last one!) might have created an obituary.

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yes, one of the main reasons I think they might still be living is that I can't get Ancestry to turn up any SS or Public Records stuff on them...I am always amazed by how much is actually available on US citizens.  In Canada we have the 1921 census, and pretty much nothing after that!

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I thought at least the first wife would have remarried, but since she would have remarried under the name Smith, well, story of my life, literally!

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Ha ha!  Sorry to laugh...I have many Brown, Smith, etc. ancestors so I do understand the frustration.

Funny, but Ancestry turns up hints for living people all the time for me.  Here it is quite interesting (to digress) to learn what's available.  Some states have put a surprising amount of stuff on-line; others very little.  And not necessarily the states I'd have thought most likely to do it.

You may have done this, but I'd consider building out her tree, if I could, and finding possible relatives (or even her) on Ancestry that you might contact.

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yes, if you can't go forward or back, go sideways, is my motto, and it is working.  I just found his sister's obit, which actually mentions him, and gives me a start with names of newspapers and funeral homes.

Re Smith, Brown, Jones and Robinson, I'm actually surprised at how often normal genealogy techniques do turn up some info!  I see lots of trees at Ancestry where the line dead-ends at a Smith, but there is hope....

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The biggest conundrum i remember was a set of relatives named Gustavus Strickland.  You'd think that would be pretty unique! Not like Smith!  But that family had at least one or two of that name in each of a few consecutive generations...that tripped me up at first!

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yes, i've been playing with the entire extended families for a few days on Ancestry, but i find WikiTree is better for naming relationships with the Relationship Finder, and also of course showing rellies who don't have an Ancestry subscription... this is all connected to a DNA match of mine, but we have no idea where the the connection comes in.  In my experience, it won't turn out the be the Smith line, even though we both have that name in our trees!

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Re WT vs. Ancestry...It is good when you can turn up new information here, but--no disrespect meant--the relative size of the two websites makes it less likely.

The DNA angle is interesting.  Is the match a strong one?

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I sent you a private message about the DNA match...

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Got it.  Thanks.

Answer 2

Woodsville is pretty small, but there are actually three or four newspapers that cover the area as well as the New Hampshire Union Leader which is statewide.  You might try emailing them directly, or maybe the funeral home.

Comments

Thanks, Kathie!  I'll give that a try!

Answer 3

Not sure if this will amount to anything, but there's a newspaper (website is seacoastonline.com) with an obit for a Lyle M. Smith but when I try to go into it it's an error page. It's not a free site so I'm wondering if subscribing would make it viewable...?

Answer 4

FWIW, I looked him up on ObitsArchive (subscription service), and there's none there either. Local papers are probably your best bet IF there was an obituary. You might also try the local funeral homes. Sometimes they have obits on their websites.