I've been doing some research lately on various people that have passed away. (My parents are now 76 and 80 years of age and there are a lot of deaths within their community.) It seems that most of the obits, regardless of which newspaper they appeared in, are now under the domain of a company called Legacy. You have to pay money to them on their site, in order for them to restore the obit for your review. I just find that really odd. If you find the obit in the actual publication where it appeared, it directs you to Legacy, to pay for the restoration. How did they get the monopoly on obits? Has anyone else noticed this?
There is Newspaper . com but you also need to pay for membership and not all newspapers are in their vault. I can't find obits for many family members because they had lived in a small town and that small town weekly newspaper isn't available.
Now if you know the name of the funeral home, you can search for free on their website, up to a point.
I find obits have a lot of information to help guide one if they are doing a family tree.
I haven't gotten to the family tree research yet. I have a cousin who has done a great deal and think he will share with me. I've actually been looking for those long lost friends and family that we haven't seen a while. I have been shocked to discover the deaths of some rather young people. (In their 50's.) One was a friend who went through a period of bizarre behavior. He even plead guilty in court to some misconduct with some women. It didn't sound like him at all. I later saw him and he was not acting right. Turns out that he had a brain disorder. I wanted to find out what he had. I discovered that he died some years ago at the age of 56! Apparently, it was Young Onset Alzheimers.
Thank you for your tips on research, Freqflyer.
Published obituaries and other articles, etc. can become the property of the publisher, which can leverage that ownership by selling to other companies.
This is why I never have entered any kind of garden contests, photo contests, or whatever - the publishers typically have in tiny, tiny print assertions that the published property becomes theirs, with rights to sell it or do what they want with it.