Obitiuaries?

Question

My uncle passed away in the 80s from a heroin overdose and my family is very hush-hush about it. I want to find more information on him since my family is being so tight-lipped. I managed to get a date of birth, death date, birth city and social security number on him but I don't know how else I should him. I would like to know the certified cause of death and just more information about him. He died before I was born but he's still my uncle, right? Any suggestions on how I should search him? I can't ask my family, they get really quiet about it. I've signed up for an Ancestry.com account, which is where I found the information. Any suggestions, much appreciated!

Answer 1

call the newspaper and/or library where he died and see if there was a news article on his death or an obituary.

Answer 2

An obituary is not likely to tell you anything more than you already know (name, age, survivors).  It will not tell you about how he died as it is obviously a taboo issue with your family.  Your best bet for more information would be the death certificate.

Answer 3

Check the local library for an archive of newspapers - they may have an obituary for him on microfilm. If they don't,  the newspaper itself may have an archive to search for it.

Answer 4

go to the hall of records in your city you can get a copy of the death cert and autopsy report but  you will have to pay a reprint fee. good luck.

Answer 5

Try to find his death certificate - an obituary wouldn't explain the cause of death because it is usually written by the family. The death certificate or an autopy report is what you want, it shows the cause of death according to the medical examiner, although it probably won't go much into detail except to say that it was a drug overdose, etc.  You may not be able to get those documents, but you can contact the city or county where the death occurred to get more info on obtaining those documents.

Answer 6

To find the cause of death you can look up his death certificate. It is public record and can be found through the vital statistics office in your state.

If a obituary was placed in the local newspaper, you may be able to go to your library and search the microfilm archives for it. If he lives far away from you, you can contact the local newspaper the obit was in. Explain what you are doing. There is usually someone at a newspaper willing to look through archives of old papers as long as you have the search narrowed down.

But, be forewarned, if your family is ashamed of him, the obituary may be very straight forward with just the name, age, date of death, survivors and funeral home information.

Good luck.