Thank you all! I will stick to the interviews for my primary sources.
My original post:
Is an obituary a primary source?
I have received many replies and both yes and no answers:
Good question; however, I would have to say no. An obituary is written
from other sources including family, friends, etc. It wouldn't
necessarily even have to be true.
http://www.uscupstate.net/uploadedFiles/library/Pathfinders/Shared_Files
/primarysecsources.pdf
Interesting question. I would tend to say that a death notice is a
public record and therefore a primary source. An obituary might be
different--someone is piecing together information about the person's
life and accomplishments through various sources.
It's tricky. The obit was written at the time but it wasn't written by
the deceased (more than likely anyhow) and isn't an official government
document. I've been doing genealogy research. The genealogy librarians
generally advise you to find better sources than obituaries. Within my
personal family research, I've seen many factual errors in the obits,
including parents' names!
Yes--Newspapers from the time period are considered primary sources for
history research.
Yes if written near the time of the death.
I would not believe so, because it is not written by the person, but by
others about the person. Also, on a personal note, you can't say
anything bad about someone who's dead, so I wouldn't trust it. PS but
remember they are not always accurate beyond the current dates & places
.. People often forget/mix-up the other data contained in the obituary
No. The coroner's report and photo of the body would be primary sources.
The deceased was a primary resource for information about him/herself.
The obit was written by someone else about that person and interpreted
events and/or facts about the person and the death. However, if the
person who wrote the obit experienced the same events with the
deceased, that person could be a primary resource about that event(s)
where they were with the deceased. Like at a wedding, both bride and
groom are primary resources about the event. Maybe?
As a genealogist I consider the death information as primary & other
info as secondary. This would hold true though for most documents
marriage records (parent info, birth dates & places all secondary),
birth records, military records, school censuses (even the US Census
records contain mostly secondary info) .... Personally I feel that most
all primary documents contain much that is really secondary sources.
(:>) If you find a sure fire method of determining a primary source,
please let me know
I don't know if obituaries would be considered a "primary source" as
such, but they are considered acceptable as proof of direct ancestry,
proof of birth date/place, marriage date/place, and death date/place in
organizations that require such proof. (These organizations can be very
strict!)
Denise M. Rominger, Library Manager
Blue Ridge High School Library
1200 W. Wht. Mtn. Blvd.
Lakeside, AZ 85929
drominger@BRUSD.k12.az.us
(928) 368-6328 x833
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