Puget Sound Genealogical
Society Obituary Project
by Larry
Harden
In the fall of 1999 a group from
Puget Sound Genealogical Society (PSGS) was given a tour of the basement of the Kitsap County Historical Society (KCHS) by
the office manager Pam Buckingham. KCHS had several boxes of obituaries that had been collected over the years. The obits
were taped to 5 x 8 cards using several kinds of scotch tape and in some cases masking tape. When the boxes became full the
obits would sometimes tear loose from the 5 x 8 cards. The board of directors of PSGS decided it would be a good idea to copy
these obituaries and KCHS was agreeable. The PSGS publication committee decided to use 3 x 5 cards and then insert the card
and the obituary into a plastic sleeve. This allows the obit to be removed for copying but provides protection when removing
and replacing the cards in the filing box.
In March of 2000 a group of PSGS
volunteers started copying the KCHS obits. They then had to cut out the obituary, create an index card with name and date
and then insert the card and obit into the plastic sleeve. Then all the names were input into a computer database, an index
was printed and then the obits were alphabetized and put into file boxes. Someone had been bringing the obituary section of
the Sun into the library for several years. In conjunction with the KCHS obits we began cutting out these obits and processing
them as previously described. The Port Orchard Independent obit section was also being saved and the Belfair Group had provided
some Belfair Herald and Mason County Journal obits. All of these obituaries were eventually entered into the database and
then combined with the obits that were obtained from the KCHS.
In November 2002, almost three
years after taking the tour of the KCHS basement, we have finally completed the project although the activity is ongoing.
There were approximately 5,600 obits from KCHS and after adding the additional obits we now have a grand total of approximately
11,500 obits. Eventually all of the names will be put on our web page.
This project took a lot longer
to complete than I had originally anticipated and could not have been accomplished without the help of the numerous volunteers
who showed up at the Tuesday work parties and assisted in the various phases and also those who took material home and inputted
the names and dates into the database. A job well done and a big thank you to everyone who participated.
We invite everyone to come in
and take a look at the finished product. If anyone has obituaries that pertain to people that lived in Kitsap County or survived
by people living in Kitsap County that we don't already have please feel free to make copies and bring them into the library.
Please either provide the death date or the newspaper date if known. They will be processed and incorporated into the existing
obit file at a later date.
