[In 2015 I shutdown FreeObituariesFound.org. -Ben]
There’s a new service for free obituaries online called Free Obituaries Found at FreeObituariesFound.org. I created this archive to preserve and grow the commons of original, transcribed, and abstracted obituaries. I’ve transcribed or abstracted fifteen obituaries so far and I need your help.
Please contribute obituaries that you have and give me feedback in comments here to help me improve this service. Here’s a video to show you how:
Hi Ben, Love this idea! What a great way to share obituaries and leave the info for future generations! Question: although I could possibly figure it out with some research, what would be the copyright cut-off date for uploading the full obituary or full transcript? I’m fine with doing abstracts, especially with your template (see a previous article), however, to me, full text would be better. Thanks again for all you do to make genealogy research easier! Kaye
Hi, Kaye. I’m with you: transcripts are better than abstracts, and abstracts are better than legal trouble or nothing. The guidance I’ve seen for genealogists is that if the work was created before 1923 it’s in the public domain. The copyrights on a work created between 1923 and 1963 may exist and after that they almost certainly do. —-Ben >@<
Thank you so much for setting up this site!
Is there a way to edit an obituary I submitted?
Hi, Linda. I’m deploying a new version with that feature now; I’ve been working on it since the weekend debut.
Search for an obituary you’ve entered, click the obituary link in the search results, and you’ll see an edit button at the bottom only if you contributed the obituary.
—-Ben >@<
Ben,
Is it legal to transcribe an obit from the newspapers copy?