Volunteers to the rescue

Having located Orlando and Mary Carothers in Modesto, Stanislaus County, CA, and having the dates of their deaths, I wanted to acquire copies of their obituaries. I have had great luck placing particular people in a particular time and place with obituaries.

Modesto is about a 6 hour drive from my home. And I will make that drive one of these days, but I do work, and money is always an issue. So, I looked for some Stanislaus County message boards online that might have people who would look up the obituary for me. I was more than happy to pay someone a reasonable fee for their time and effort. What I discovered at the Stanislaus County, CA message board are volunteers who will lookup and transcribe obituaries at no cost to the requester. So, I made this post at the message board, and less than 2 weeks later, Ted Pack replied with the following:

Modesto Bee
Monday, 6 January 1964; page A-2
ORLANDO O. CAROTHERS

Orlando Oscar Carothers, a retired carpenter and farmer, died yesterday at a local hospital following a long illness. Carothers had lived in Modesto 24 years. He was a
native of Illinois. He was a member of the Wildey Lodge 149, IOOF.

Survivors include two daughters, Billie M. Jones and Edith Rux, both of Modesto; three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Services will be conducted at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Salas Brothers Funeral Chapel by Boyd Allen and the Widley Lodge. Burial will be in the Odd Fellows Cemetery.


Modesto Bee
Tuesday, 9 July 1963; page A-3
MARY CAROTHERS

Services for Mary Virginia Carothers, 82, Modesto, will be conducted at 11 a.m. tomorrow in the Salas Brothers Funeral Chapel by Boyd Allen. Burial will be in the Odd Fellows Cemetery.

She died Sunday after a brief illness.

How cool is that! Ted even volunteered to send me a photocopy at no cost to me. Very nice! Volunteers like Ted really do a great service for those researching their family histories. If you look over this message board, and other regional type message boards, you will find volunteers ready to help out. With that in mind, if you make regular visits to regional resource like newspapers, volunteer!

Notice all the information in the obituaries! Orlando's children Edith and Billie ended up in Modesto along with their parents. It lists their married names. It lists grandchildren and great-grandchildren, without names though. It also lists the funeral home and cemetery. Mary's obituary was surprisingly brief, but did list the funeral home and cemetery.

These obituaries provided starting points for several other areas to research.