Saturday, October 25, 2014

My Grandfather's Obituary, November 11, 1929, Part I

This is my grandmother, Helen Marie Laffey Kelly, and my grandfather, Michael James Barrett Kelly, on their wedding day, November 19, 1919. She was 24; he was 41. 
I never knew my grandfather. He died when my mom was two. She never knew him either, really. The other day Mom mentioned she had never seen her father's obituary, so I decided to find it and present it to her for her birthday.

First, I spent a couple of hours on the computer doing a search for my grandfather's birth and death dates. I found them fairly easily. Then I went to the Indiana State Library Genealogy Department and told the librarian what I was looking for. She asked if I had a death date and I told her November 11, 1929. She went to the file cabinet and pulled out a tape for the newspaper for that day. She showed me how to put it in the Microfiche machine (it seemed very old-fashioned) and start searching.  
Well, right away under "Death Notices", we found it listed! Do you see it above? It's not easy to see. 
And here it is cropped and edited.

Blogger said my post was too long, so this is a two-parter. Scroll up for Part II.

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