Beginning in the 1980’s the historical society started clipping obituaries from newspapers and saving them in a card catalog. Over the years the collection has grown to about 24,000 obits and funeral cards including quite a few from the turn of the century forward. In addition, due to the fact that newspapers started charging for obit space in the paper, it was noted that a number of families may choose not to publish a loved ones obit. The decision was made, starting in January 2015, to begin collecting obits directly from the funeral homes in Williamson County who publish them. This task was taken on by WCHS volunteer Betty Millard who has since that date collected over 2,500 obits. All of these obits have been currently indexed and are now available in a new index category called “Obituaries” and can be found on our websites “Library Resource Indexes page”.
Since many people carry the same or similar names, every attempt was made to include as much familial information such as maiden names, parents and spouses where listed to avoid similarities. Keep in mind that many obits are not always listed by proper names but rather familiar names. An example would be Robert and William often go by Bob and Bill so just keep that in mind.
Since a new “Obituaries” category was created we have moved two Obituary books that were previously filed in the “Newspaper” category into the “Obituaries” category in order to keep them together. The new file will now reflect app. 35,000 obit references.
As always, if an obit of interest is found, let us know at wchsmail@yahoo.com and we can email them to you.
