Thursday, March 11, 2010

America's Obituaries and Death Notices

I've been accessing this electronic resource via the Philadelphia Online Library for about a year.

I want to do some analysis to see if the database of older obits is increasing.

2010-03-10

Any name, any location within these dates
1971-1980 (613,243 names)
1961-1970 (713,937 names)
1951-1960 (521,366 names)
1941-1950 (483,412 names)
1931-1940 (68,323 names)
1921-1930 (779 names)
1911-1920 (92,575 names)
1901-1910 (939 names)
1891-1900 (2,080 names)

All Pennsylvania,
no date limit (1745727 names)
1800-1900 (0 names)
1901-1910 (0 names)
1911-1920 (0
1921-1930 (0
1931-1940 (0
1941-1950 (0
1951-1960 (0
1961-1970 (0
1971-1980 (0)
1981 (150 names)
1982 (232 names)
1983 (4,846 names)
1984 (4,695 names)
1985 (4,261 names)
1986 (7,550 names)
1987 (18,448 names)
1988 (18,420 names)
1989 (17,250 names)

According to their website, my Philadelphia local papers have this coverage

Philadelphia Daily News (PA) (7/21/1982-Current)
Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) (1/16/1981-Current)
Burlington County Times (Willingboro, NJ) (12/16/2002-Current)

Selecting just the Philadelphia newspapers gives me these results

1980 (0 names)
1981 (150 names)
1982 (232 names)
1983 (4,846 names)
1984 (4,670 names)
1985 (4,261 names)
1986 (4,828 names)
1987 (11,794 names)
1988 (11,867 names)
1989 (10,898 names)

Entries containing the word 'Cinnaminson' (7,597 names)
Last name Smiley: (3,246 names)


No comments: