Tips on searching for death notices

oceanclub

I got a short sub to Irish Newspapers Archives, and one thing I thought would be easy was to look up death notices. Except sometimes the surname and name aren't even contiguous. I tried {surname} <NEAR> {name} but still got thousands of hits that way. Any tips would be appreciated,

P.

pinkypinky

Have you tried the name in quote marks e.g "Helen Murphy"?

oceanclub

Just be clear, that wouldn't work, as notices are often in the form:

"SURNAME.... on 10th December, FORENAME, beloved husband of yadda yadda...."

So searching for "FORENAME SURNAME" or even "SURNAME, FORENAME" doesn't work.

P.

L1011

I think there's a restrictor you can put on NEAR - it has been a while, though - to a certain number of words.

Had some death notices with "SURNAME - on the DAY DATE MONTH, suddenly, the relict of SPOUSE NAME, FORENAME" style entries which that would completely lose, though

spurious

Also words like 'regretted'.

Jellybaby1

Before the site changed, I used to just search a "firstname surname" or just "surname" + births + marriages + deaths, and I harvested a lot of death notices. When they changed the site it became so much more difficult. I even tested it by looking for notices which I already had got but couldn't manage to find them. I still wish I had a sub though.

Hermy

Very frustrating site to use.
Even Roots was never that bad!

pinkypinky

Yes, I had a recent one day sub and I found the site desperately slow. Tedious too that they only showed 10 results at a time. I think they should have a tutorial on the best ways to interrogate the database for bmd notices.

L1011

The other thing to be aware of is (this isn't relevant if you've found stuff before of course) is that their OCR is absolutely woeful particularly on older papers. The site also isn't fast enough to use it like a microfilm reader and flip through looking for regular locations.

mickmackey1

The last time I had a sub I was going to come on here and ask exactly the same question! The only hope is a rare surname and reasonably accurate address.

shanew

I rarely trust OCR when searching this type of record - if possible I try to find a date or at least a quarter and browse a newspaper by date. The hatches, matches and dispatches are usually near the fold, and often dont covert correctly

KildareFan

I usually put surname <and> funeral when searching. Other common terms in funeral notices are R.I.P., burial, mass.

oceanclub

Yup, the OCR isn't very good; in some places, it's complete gobbledegook. I found some articles containing particular addresses by omitting the number part as that was scanned incorrectly. Of course I'm assuming there's many matches missed out.

P.