Obituary Names

Today's name of note:

Helen F. Troy

Hee.

Emily M. (Sakiewicz) Drzewianowski

When I see names like these I always think of women who are like "when I get married, I can get rid of this really long name that no one can spell! Or not."

Today's Notable Obituary Names

Wladyslawa T. Oniszczuk
Rev. Thomas Patrick Quinn
Eleanor (Barnes) Bjorlykke

I also had two 101 year olds in this 2 month crop of papers. Not bad for one small town.

On Obituaries

One of the jobs I do at the reference desk involves perusing the local papers and entering the names of the people who have died over the past several months, their age, and the page number and date of the obituary. This is so future versions of me will have an easier time of it when the relatives show up and want to see the microfilm. It is also an interesting way to study the demographics of a place like this, as well as the statistics of death. While most of the people in here are in their 70s, 80s, and 90s (and even some in their 100s), there are a surprising (possibly only to me) number of 20s, 30s, and 40s, and unfortunately also several newborns or young children. Doing a job like this makes you realize that people are dying every day, as well as being born, and there's not much anyone can do about it. The best thing about this task is the opportunity to name-watch, which I haven't done since my days of running summer registration for children's tennis. For example:

Giacomina (Richiedei) Risciotti
Czeslawa (Macierowski) Chmura
Anne P. (Kudelski) Philbrook-McMennamin
Justin Plouffe
Josephine "Pina" (Salvetti) Lorenzatti
Tadeusz Pasterkiewicz
Mario Asta-Ferrero

Hopefully these names will live on long after their bearers.