Death and Funeral Notices

As I continue my current fixation on researching old newspapers, I have come to realise I have quite a number of death, funeral and probate notices amongst my finds.

While many of these notices contain the basic details only, others provide a number of interesting details which can be very useful in further research.  Take the notices regarding my ancestor William Pummeroy and the details they provide.

Above is his death notice, from the Leader, Saturday 12 October 1889, page 43.  This notice not only gives William's date of death but his full address, age at death, names of his children (including married names of his daughters), a count of his grandchildren and how long he had lived in the colony - which helps me find his immigration details.  So much information is such a short statement.

Next we have the notice of the application for probate from The Age, Wednesday 16 October 1889, page 8.  This gives me William's occupation and the names, occupation and addresses of his executors - two of his sons.

Finally, I have a report of the details of William's will, something I have rarely found reported in the newspapers.  This was published in Table Talk (part of the Government Gazette), Friday 29 November 1889, page 6 and gives some wonderful detail of his property, belongings and the value of the estate he left behind.