Hi all, our class has not been close (oh,those wild 60's)and we are now planning our 50th with very sketchy info about our deceased members. We do not have obituaries and our volunteers do not have time to look back for them. For many we don't know the exact year or where they lived. It looks like I have to write up the info-I was hoping I could just use the form the classmates are sending in. Some entries will say nothing more than John Doe notified us that our classmate Jane Doe is deceased. We do want to honor these classmates but this feels like I'm slighting them. Any advice?

We put them on the In memory page....Most of the time they are friends or knew their brother or sister, etc. etc.
You don't have to have a date of death...just the year..if none..they will be listed on death unknown. It's pretty easy to find an obit...just google their name it will usually come up...and you can copy and paste the obit in the editor. Sometime you can find an obit and link it.
I hope this helps.

What we did at our 50th was do a name tag with there picture an took a tree branch decorated & put the Name Tag on the limbs

The name tags were the same one we used for all members at the reunion no date or obit on any one this way no questions asked as some passed away witch we felt was best un said

There is a website that can help find obituaries www.legacy.com. Also your local newspaper for those that stayed in the home town can be helpful. Most have archive searches. Sometimes you have to pay to access real old archives.

We were a small school, about 100 in our senior class, so even if we were not close friends with each classmate, we did know them. We probably did not find all the deceased for our 50th but hopefully found most. We were able to find obituaries and share dates, places of death and burial and sometimes the cause of death. It is just natural for classmates to want to know such and unless it is something that would be embarrassing we saw no reason to not share the information.

Strictly OUR policy, but we do NOT post that someone has died, unless we have an obituary from a funeral home or newspaper. [posted one time, a person was deceased because a classmate said they were, when they were VERY MUCH ALIVE!]

Another source to search is findagrave.com

Last reunion, we had name tags with the deceased Sr. picture on them, and placed a 'tea-light' candle behind it.

This year [October], I plan on having a notebook with a printout of the comments left on the classmates In Memory page -

For our major reunions, we post an "In Memory" Board similar to the one in the attached picture - though it's our Veterans board in the picture. Deceased are posted in alphabetical order and the date of death is posted at the bottom, if we have it.

Of course, the "In Memory" section on CC has as much information as we can gather. If you have anyone in your class who has access to someone in the police department or a private detective, they have sites we can't access.

On our In Memory page there also is a slide show including the class pictures of all deceased, with the quote "We shall remember them at their best".

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. They are really helpful. I will try to find some help searching out the obits, but it does seem more important to keep searching for missing classmates. Please keep the comments coming. I will read all of them

Hi,

At our reunion we made an announcement at the dinner reception to take a few minutes to say a prayer/ think loving fond thoughts for deceased alumni. No names mentioned since we're a Multi Year group.

We do have a list of names on our IN MEMORY link verified by obituary, information from family members and at least 2 confirmations by non-family ( friends /schoolmates ).

Hope this helps.
Thelma

The manner in which you choose to honor your classmates at your 50th reunion is a personal choice, but I'm sure you will make the perfect decision.

Since your class is new to Class Creator, your top priority, as you say, is to find as many missing classmates as possible. In finding them, you may discover some who are deceased, especially those with whom no one has had contact all these years.

How you honor these classmates on the In Memory page will be influenced by how much time someone wishes to put into the tributes and what info and photos you have available.

Our site is probably on the extreme end of honoring those who have passed. We have In Memory pages for our deceased classmates, including former classmates who were in our class from kindergarten through 12th grade; and faculty and staff going back to kindergarten. We include as many photos as possible in the entry and a full obituary for classmates, and obituary extracts for faculty and staff.

Of course, there are times when no obituary is published, which makes for a scant tribute. But our goal is to put as much as possible on the tribute page.

We also allow our In Memory pages, along with all our other customized pages, to be publicly viewable. This allows a wide range of people from other classes, as well as relatives and friends, to view the In Memory tributes.

Your local library also may have access to sites for which you would have to pay. I found many of our deceased classmates death notices at the library. I was then able to enter year of death and, sometimes, to copy and paste the obituary.

Is there a way to add line in the classmate details for a date of death?

Lisa, When you create an In Memory entry, you first go to the In Memory page. After you select a name from the drop down menu and click on "Add Selected Deceased Classmate," you're now on the page for the person who passed. You'll see a box that says Deceased: Year of Death (if known). Click on the downward pointing arrow and click on the year of death.