I wrote a few days ago about some to the new things happening at Ancestry.com. One of those is the new Newspapers.com obituary index. Besides that, ancestry has several other resources that include obits – one of those being the Publisher Extra subscription available for Newspapers.com. Your typical Newspapers.com or Ancestry All-Access subscription gets you all kinds of historic obits. However, some of the newer obituaries are harder to come by, as the newspaper publishers often charge for access to their more current stuff. With the tight margins newspapers are forced to operate on, I can’t say I blame them for trying to make money anywhere they can. Many publishers have an agreement with Newspapers.com to allow access to their obituaries, but subscribers must pay an annual fee. By buying a Publisher Extra subscription at Ancestry (or Newspapers.com), you can get access to recent obits, many of which have been indexed in the Newspapers.com Obituary Index. It costs about $50 a year, but if you’re chasing cousins, and/or doing research requiring newer material, it can be worth it.
When I’m looking for an obit, I’ll often first do Google and Bing searches of the Internet. That may be enough to allow me to find what I need. In some cases, having a Publishers Extra sub gets me to an obit I otherwise wouldn’t be able to see. I next check the new Newspapers.com Obituary Index at Ancestry, which may lead me directly to the needed obituary.
Following is some info I got from Ancestry this morning that describes their obituary access in simple terms.
Ancestry® Expands Reference Panel to Deliver More Precise Results and New Regions
Ancestry® updated its collection of US obituaries by combing through millions of digital obituaries to key names, relationships and other facts so members can now easily search these records with just one click. This initiative first announced at RootsTech uses new sophisticated artificial intelligence technology.
The new Newspapers.com Obituary Collection and the upgraded Ancestry U.S. Obituary Collection will expand Ancestry’s unparalleled historical record collections that enable people around the world to uncover their family history, spark their own journey of discovery and inspire meaningful conversations.
- Obituary collections include over 262 million worldwide obituaries and death announcements with almost 1 billion searchable family members
- US Obituary Collection, 1930-Current search is the world’s largest, searchable digital archive, now includes 4x more searchable family members
- Newspapers.com Obituary Index includes facts from nearly 200 million Newspapers.com obituaries
- Newspapers.com is the largest online newspaper archive, with over 525+ million pages of historical newspapers, including obituaries, from thousands of printed newspapers across the United States and beyond.
- Members with an Ancestry All Access or Newspapers.com Basic subscription have a 1-click option to view the full obituary on Newspapers.com. Some images may require a Publisher Extra subscription as certain newspapers require additional licenses to view their content.
Read the Ancestry Blog Post. Note – I read the comments that are currently posted for that blog post – most being negative. First, folks don’t like having to pay another $50 for access to the Publisher’s Extra obits, which they are often led to by the new Newspapers.com Obituary Index. I get it, and understand the thinking. However, would we rather have access at a fee, or no access at all? Folks complain about corporations being there for the money. Yep – that’s what corporations do, and the shareholders expect a nice profit. I’m thankful that these resources are available, at any cost. I’m an old guy and remember waiting for copies of documents and such to be sent me through the mail. Paying for quick and easy access seems a reasonable tradeoff to me. There are other complaints about All Access not working for people. I’m wondering if they used their Ancestry.com login. Using that, I have no issues getting access to Ancestry, Newspapers.com, Fold3, and in my case, Publisher’s Extra. I have to wonder if people understand what an All Access subscription is, just based on some of the comments.
- Press release
- Newspapers.com Obituary Index search
- US Obituary Collection, 1930-Current search
- Newspapers.com
Disclaimer: I’ve been an Ancestry.com subscriber since the being, and subscribed to Newspapers.com, and Fold3 when it was Footnote.com. I have an affiliate relationship with Ancestry, but seldom use it, as I feel I can be more objective if I’m not trying to make a buck. In the case of the above info, there are no affiliate links involved.
