WEBVTT - How Have Obituaries Changed?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum Here. You or someone you know may still

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<v Speaker 1>subscribe to a local newspaper, to a print edition, even

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<v Speaker 1>depending on a number of factors such as your age

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<v Speaker 1>and health and whether or not your beetlejuice. You might

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<v Speaker 1>turn immediately to the obituaries section, curious if there's anyone

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<v Speaker 1>you recognize among the faces and names of the recently deceased.

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<v Speaker 1>If so, you are certainly not alone. For more than

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<v Speaker 1>two hundred and fifty years, newspapers have published obituaries to

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<v Speaker 1>announce the deaths of both the famous and familiar. Obituaries

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<v Speaker 1>fulfill a unique role in local communities and broader society,

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<v Speaker 1>both notifying the public of a passing and inviting them

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<v Speaker 1>to join the collective mourning process. As print newspaper circulation

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<v Speaker 1>has declined sharply over the past twenty five years, as

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<v Speaker 1>so have print obituaries, but the familiar format of the

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<v Speaker 1>obituary remains even as death notices move online to websites

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<v Speaker 1>or heartfelt posts on social media. Just for one example,

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<v Speaker 1>ancestry dot com, the genealogy website, about five years ago

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<v Speaker 1>upgraded its online obituary archives to include more than two

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and sixty two million published obituaries dating back to

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<v Speaker 1>the seventeen fifties. They used algorithms to extract biographical data

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<v Speaker 1>from centuries of print obituaries, birth and death dates, geographical locations, parents' names,

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<v Speaker 1>and next of kin in order to automatically populate the

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<v Speaker 1>family trees of subscribers to their service. But the practice

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<v Speaker 1>of death notices goes way further back. The first obituaries

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<v Speaker 1>were published in ancient Rome around fifty nine BCE on

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<v Speaker 1>papyrus newspapers called daily events, but these notices of death

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<v Speaker 1>didn't become prevalent until much later. In newspapers. From before

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<v Speaker 1>the eighteen hundreds, ancestry dot com spots could only find

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<v Speaker 1>a handful of obituaries per year. A few years later,

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<v Speaker 1>the number broke a hundred for the first time. Papers

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<v Speaker 1>did regularly publish stories about the deaths of well known

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<v Speaker 1>public figures like politicians, wealthy socialites, artists, and other newsmakers,

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<v Speaker 1>but those stories written by journalists were distinct from these

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<v Speaker 1>shorter death announcements that evolved into the modern obituary. By

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<v Speaker 1>the mid eighteen hundreds, newspapers were regularly publishing death notices

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<v Speaker 1>submitted by local funeral homes. Before the linotype machine was

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<v Speaker 1>invented in eighteen eighty six, every printed letter of every

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<v Speaker 1>word printed in the newspaper had to be set by hand,

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<v Speaker 1>so papers tended to be short, and obituaries were briefed,

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<v Speaker 1>typically around fifty words long, just enough to give the

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<v Speaker 1>name of the deceased, the name of a principal surviving

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<v Speaker 1>family member, and the date and location of the funeral. Sadly,

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<v Speaker 1>infants and young children died in large numbers in the

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<v Speaker 1>nineteenth century from illnesses and diseases that we now have

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<v Speaker 1>vaccines for. Unlike adult obituaries, which stuck to the facts,

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<v Speaker 1>a child's obituary may have included a brief bit of poetry.

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<v Speaker 1>For example, this verse from an eighteen fifty one notice

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<v Speaker 1>in the Philadelphia Public Ledger about the death of an infant,

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<v Speaker 1>Dear Richard's gone to realms above to receive his savior's

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<v Speaker 1>dying love. By the height of the Civil War, published

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<v Speaker 1>death notices increased to tens of thousands a year. As

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<v Speaker 1>more space and attention were given to obituaries, they began

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<v Speaker 1>to serve as places for public expressions of mourning. For example,

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<v Speaker 1>in the February seventh, eighteen sixty five edition of the

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<v Speaker 1>Baltimore Sun, one death notice included a brief eulogy to

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<v Speaker 1>a promising young man's life cut short at twenty one years.

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<v Speaker 1>The subject of this notice was married, but six weeks

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<v Speaker 1>ago he had just embarked in business and possessed the

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<v Speaker 1>health and vigor to render it profitable. When the strong

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<v Speaker 1>hand of affliction was laid upon him and the form

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<v Speaker 1>recently so manly was soon prostrate in death. A further

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<v Speaker 1>article this episode is based on how Stuffwork. Spoke with

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<v Speaker 1>Genevieve Keiney, a president of the National Museum of Funeral

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<v Speaker 1>History in Houston, Texas. She explained the death notices published

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<v Speaker 1>in local newspapers also functioned as quasi legal documents because

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<v Speaker 1>the newspaper was a public forum. A death announcement served

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<v Speaker 1>to notify creditors who might want to file a claim

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<v Speaker 1>against the deceased's estate. With the automation of typesetting, newspapers

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<v Speaker 1>expanded at the turn of the twentieth century, and more

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<v Speaker 1>space could be dedicated to death notices and obituaries. Like

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<v Speaker 1>classified advertisements, newspapers charged a fee to publish obituaries, and

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<v Speaker 1>publishers quickly realized there was good money to be made

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<v Speaker 1>from them. Ancestry dot COM's obituary extractor found an increase

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<v Speaker 1>in obituaries from nineteen hundred to the nineteen thirties of

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<v Speaker 1>about three hundred percent. It was around this time, in

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<v Speaker 1>the nineteen thirties and forties, that the modern obituary template

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<v Speaker 1>took shape. Here's where we start to see families in

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<v Speaker 1>funeral homes writing death notices that adhere to a familiar

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<v Speaker 1>four part structure, a death announcement, short bio survived by

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<v Speaker 1>section and funeral information. If you look at the obituary

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<v Speaker 1>section of the Richmond Times Dispatch for July third of

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen thirty eight, for example, it's a mix of shorter

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<v Speaker 1>death notices written by families and longer obituaries written by

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<v Speaker 1>staff journalists and wire services like the Associated Press. The

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<v Speaker 1>shorter death notices had the deceased person's name of the headline,

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<v Speaker 1>while a longer obituary written by the paper might carry

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<v Speaker 1>the headline Missus Susan Murdock dies, writes Monday. Some of

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<v Speaker 1>the obituaries had pictures that deceased in their youth, a

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<v Speaker 1>regular feature of today's obits, one from nineteen thirty eight,

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<v Speaker 1>even written after the funeral and shares an account of

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<v Speaker 1>the service. That standard template can be a tremendous resource

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<v Speaker 1>for experienced genealogists and folks just starting out researching their

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<v Speaker 1>family history, as most standard obituaries include the spouse's name,

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<v Speaker 1>children's names, including married names for adult daughters, grandchildren's names,

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<v Speaker 1>and more. The style remained fairly unchanged throughout the second

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<v Speaker 1>half of the nineteen hundreds, but things took a shift

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<v Speaker 1>after the attacks on September eleventh of two thousand and one.

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<v Speaker 1>Obituary expert Susan Sopper explained to NPR in twenty eighteen

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<v Speaker 1>that in the months following the attacks, the New York

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<v Speaker 1>Times published short narrative obituaries on each of the nearly

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<v Speaker 1>three thousand people killed that day. She said they were fabulous.

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<v Speaker 1>Everyone was recognized as a whole person, and they had

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<v Speaker 1>fun anecdotes. They made you cry, they made you smile,

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<v Speaker 1>And to me, that was sort of when the tide

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<v Speaker 1>turned in abituary and people realized that you could bring

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<v Speaker 1>a person to life and keep them alive in even

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<v Speaker 1>a short written bio. Soaper theorized that these obituaries started

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<v Speaker 1>a trend toward more honesty and openness and remembrances instead

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<v Speaker 1>of using coded language like he died at home or

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<v Speaker 1>she died suddenly. Families were opening up about how things

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<v Speaker 1>like addiction or clinical depression took a loved one's life

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<v Speaker 1>and including previously taboo details such as queer partners and

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<v Speaker 1>children born out of wetlock. Families now use the space

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<v Speaker 1>to talk about the passions and dreams of the deceased,

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<v Speaker 1>and a few obituaries even go so far as to

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<v Speaker 1>say that the deceased will not be missed. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>is based on the article how obituaries went from dry

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<v Speaker 1>death notices to tributes to truth on how stuffworks dot com,

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<v Speaker 1>written by Dave Ruse. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio

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<v Speaker 1>in partnership with how stuffworks dot com and was produced

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<v Speaker 1>by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit

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<v Speaker 1>the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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<v Speaker 1>your favorite shows.