How do you find out who's died?

I check facebook a couple of times a week to specifically check on my sick and dying friends. Weddings and deaths haven't been printed in the paper in years. Hell, there are so few papers left and those who pay for them, read them online.

You ask on the Datalounge.

One of the best uses for FB is to learn of deaths of people close to your friends - their parents or other family members for whom you would want to send condolensces to your friends.

Also, it's a good way to find out about people with whom you weren't close, but for whom you might be sad - like former teachers, professors, or colleagues.

I found out recently that the spouse of a friend I've known since high school died of cancer. The friend and I aren't close anymore, but were very good friends for years and simply drifted apart - one of those people you always ask about when you run into mutual friends.

Obituaries section of the relevant newspaper (online). Even if people moved far away, the family will usually post an obituary in the local newspaper (town where dead person grew up or has connections to).

Set up a Google Alert for those on your Death Watch List and let Google comb the obits and news reports for you

You use a ouija board, Rose!

Op is a weird ass

I'm 58 and I think looking for people who die every day is very weird, I have friends my age that think that way too. If they mean something to me then I will know they died. That's always been an old person's thing to do, look for deaths.

At the moment, I just wait for my partner or sister to tell me. They are both like hawks keeping tabs on the sick and dead. They are also the only 2 people I care lives or dies, so I'm fine waiting on them to alert me about others.

I found the body once. Otherwise I usually don't find out who died unless they are family member.

R2, is Olivia de Havilland still alive?

When I grew up, the obituaries were referred to as the Irish Sports pages.

My friend Pat, an Irish guy from Derry, told me he was missing a lot of wakes since the price of The Globe went from a quarter to 50 cents.

My brother texts me. We may or may not party dance.

Word of mouth.

Call the funeral home for their latest

Yes, r11, and still so young.

I have bookmarked the websites of funeral homes where I used to live

I enjoy learning via FB or LinkedIn of the deaths of those I’ve cursed.

Suck off the county coroner for info

I can fully rely on my dad. I was the only one moving out of my home town. Whenever somebody passes away, he notifies me. I can count on that.

OP - You look for death notices in the classifieds? Are you looking to purchase a spare organ or maybe a whole, fresh corpse?

[quote] Obituaries section of the relevant newspaper (online). Even if people moved far away, the family will usually post an obituary in the local newspaper (town where dead person grew up or has connections to).

Mother taught me how to be frugal. I placed her obit in the pennysaver circular.

"the classifieds ever day to see who'd died."

Were they looking to buy their stuff?

I check my pulse every morning to make sure that I still have one.

R12 If you mean the Boston Globe it's $3.50 now (more if you're outside the suburbs).

I've left directions to my family not to publish any sort of death announcement for me. The quaking of the earth and the blotting out of the sun will be quite sufficient.

I open my fucking newspaper and turn to the obituary section!!!

I honestly don't think about it and don't look for it. I never read the obits. Not a conscious decision, I guess I just am not very interested. If someone I know has a parent who dies, for ex., I'm usually informed by somebody. There are always people who know that stuff.

I look out my window for the wagon.

Like my parents, I read the obituaries in the NY Times.

The paid obits are at times as interesting as the ones of persons of note.

Periodically, I'll check the Website of a local funeral home.

Facebook is also a good way to find out about the deaths of friends' parents et al.

My stepfather seems to enjoy being a fount of useless information and seems to delight in telling any and everyone he can of someone else's death.

I think it's an extension of his narcissism that he thinks everyone should care that a guy he worked with 30 years ago has passed away.

Carl Reiner (died in 2020, age 98) said that when he got up in the morning, he looked in the Los Angeles Times obituary section. If his name wasn't there, he'd go downstairs and have breakfast.

OP - They're the ones who smell bad. Real bad.

If you’re there you’ll know

My aunt lets me know when one of my family members commits suicide

I wish somebody would start a “latest deaths” thread in the style of latest mugshot

I run through the online obituaries from a foreign country every few years just to see if a certain ex of mine has died. He's well known in his field so it will show up when he's finally dead.

I hate this man with the heat of a thousand suns. I was thrilled, briefly, when the obits turned up his son. I should be ashamed of that and I am - sort of. Besides, what I actually want is for HIM to be dead, not his children or his broodmare.

[quote] Obituaries section of the relevant newspaper (online).

In the old days you could count on this being a reliable source, but that was when death notices (a basic announcement) were free and an obituary with a brief summary of the person's life was charged a fair price per word or per line.

Now, obituaries can be up to $1000 - Craigslist killed newspaper advertising and they've gotta get money wherever they can.

So some families forgo this. As someone who has searched obits for genealogy purposes, about 50 percent of my extended family members who have died in the last 10 years or so didn't have a newspaper obituary. Some didn't have one at all, others had one only on the webpage of their funeral home/cremation handler.

Have a friend who always races to be the first with "Did you hear?' When ever her name pops up on my mobile I know some ones croaked. I call her the Angel Of Death.

The Wikipedia obits page is really good for notable people.

A lot of obituaries are posted now directly on Legacy and some other sites. Often I find an obituary by typing in a name, a city, and the word obituary. "John Smith Columbus Ohio obituary" I would usually do this if a friend told me that someone I knew died and wasn't able to provide any more details - or if I want to find out if someone from my past I'm stalking has passed away.

I check the local obituaries once a year. That's how I found out that two of my ex boyfriends had died. One killed himself, the other was alcoholic and was found unconscious on a park bench.

usually by being embarrassed in conversation with someone. How is so-in-so doing? Oh, she died last year.

[QUOTE] Have a friend who always races to be the first with "Did you hear?' When ever her name pops up on my mobile I know some ones croaked. I call her the Angel Of Death.

Is she also the poster with the hair trigger reaction with those "Dead to Me" threads on here. I swear whoever that is must be scanning the news 24/7 just to be first every time and GOD FORBID someone start another thread later.

People I know? Pre-internet I was a newspaper subscriber and I’d scan the obituaries. I knew a guy named Gary Garland and everybody said that it was the gods’ honest truth that his mother was a cab driver who lived in a nearby suburb and her name was Judy Garland. I was always suspicious (not that she was a cab driver).

I hadn’t seen him for a year or so and then saw his obituary in the paper. He died of lung cancer at 26 in the state next door where his mother lived and her name was not Judy. I’m certain it was cancer as a complication of AIDS, but they didn’t list that. It was pre triple cocktail HIV treatment and deaths were rising still.

Today I just find out from friends online. Sometimes I’ll miss the post and not know for months or even years that someone I once knew but we didn’t stay in touch has died.

If it’s a real close friend, I’ve had friends call to tell me (if it was someone I was close to. I moved away from my home city pre-cell and internet so lost touch with a lot of folks I would have kept up with otherwise.)

And there are so many people from my 20s that I can’t find online that I worry they may be gone.

[quote] Weddings and deaths haven't been printed in the paper in years.

This poster doesn't read the NY Times. For shame.

I stand out on my porch and yell out “It’s time for the daily neighborhood roll call.” No answer means they’re dead