What Are Obituaries and How Do You Find or Submit One in a Local Paper?

An obituary is a published notice of someone's death, usually combining a brief life story with service details and a list of surviving family. You find them in the obituaries section of a local news site such as SCNOW, and they are typically placed by a funeral home or family, often for a fee. Read them for service times, family connections, and community record; submit one through the funeral home or the paper's obituary desk rather than expecting a news reporter to write it.

Obituary, death notice, or funeral home listing?

These three terms get used interchangeably, but they describe different things:

A newsroom may also publish a staff-written obituary for a notable local figure, but that is the exception. Most entries you see in a paper's obituaries section are paid or submitted notices, not reporting.

Why people read and keep obituaries

• Service information. The practical reason most people open the section: when and where a visitation, funeral, or memorial is happening.
• Genealogy and family research. Obituaries name parents, spouses, children, siblings, and sometimes grandchildren and employers. That makes them one of the densest single sources for building a family tree.
• Community record. In smaller markets, the obituaries section functions as an informal local history — who lived here, what they did, which churches and businesses they belonged to.
• Grief and recognition. A published notice is a public acknowledgment that someone existed and mattered, which is why families often spend time getting the wording right.

Finding obituaries on a local news site like SCNOW

SCNOW covers Florence, South Carolina and the surrounding region, and its site navigation includes an obituaries section alongside news, sports, and weather. The general path on a site like this:

1. Open the site's main navigation or menu.
2. Look for an Obituaries link — it is usually grouped with classifieds or community sections rather than with news.
3. On the obituaries page, expect a list of recent notices with names, dates, and often a photo.
4. Open an individual entry to see the full text and service details.
5. Use the search or date filter on that page to look for a specific name or a past date.

If you cannot find the link, search the site for the deceased's name plus the town. Local papers also syndicate obituaries to partner funeral homes, so the same notice may appear in more than one place.

What a published obituary typically includes

• Full name, including maiden name where relevant
• Age and date of death
• Place of residence and where the person died
• Birth date and place, and parents' names
• Education, military service, career, memberships, and hobbies
• Surviving family: spouse, children, grandchildren, siblings, and sometimes predeceased relatives
• Service details: visitation, funeral, burial, memorial, and where donations may be sent
• The funeral home handling arrangements

Accuracy matters more than length. Names, dates, and spellings are the things families most often need corrected, so proofread before submitting.

How to submit an obituary

The usual route runs through the funeral home, which handles the submission as part of its services. If you are writing one yourself:

1. Confirm the facts with the funeral home or family — legal name, dates, and the exact service schedule.
2. Draft the text. Most papers accept a standard paragraph format; some allow a photo for an additional charge.
3. Contact the paper's obituary desk or use the submission form on its obituaries page. SCNOW's site carries a Subscribe link, which signals that some access or services sit behind a subscription or account — check the obituaries page directly for current submission instructions and any fee.
4. Ask about cost and deadline. Obituaries are commonly billed by the line or by the column inch, and there is usually a cutoff time tied to the next print edition.
5. Review the proof the paper sends back and request corrections before it runs.

Costs vary by paper, length, and whether a photo is included, so get the quote before you commit to a long tribute.

Searching archived obituaries

For family or historical research, recent notices on the paper's site are only the start. Older obituaries usually live in:

• The paper's own archive or e-edition, if it has one
• Public library databases, which often provide free access to historical newspaper collections
• Genealogy sites that index obituaries by name, date, and location
• Microfilm at local libraries for editions predating digital archives

Search by the person's full name and any known nicknames, then narrow by year and town. Because obituaries frequently name relatives, a single find can open up several earlier generations.