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  • Help locating proper Obituary

    Hello

    I have a great great uncle who passed away in New York in 1938. He worked for the French Embassy and was quite well to do.
    PhotoFamily kindly found a very short Obituary for him in the NY Times but I was kind of hoping there was a bigger one somewhere.
    His name was Peter Paul Whelan (But he was known as Pierre).
    This is the obit found -

    Whelan - On Nov. 21, 1938, Peter P., beloved husband of Cecile. Funeral from Universal Chapel, Lexington Ave. at 52d St., Wednesday, Nov. 23, at 2:30 P.M.

    He worked for a long time in Philadelphia and also spent a great deal of time working in Washington.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Danny
    http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=528974734

  • #2
    Originally posted by quiffdo View Post
    Hello

    I have a great great uncle who passed away in New York in 1938. He worked for the French Embassy and was quite well to do.
    PhotoFamily kindly found a very short Obituary for him in the NY Times but I was kind of hoping there was a bigger one somewhere.
    His name was Peter Paul Whelan (But he was known as Pierre).
    This is the obit found -

    Whelan - On Nov. 21, 1938, Peter P., beloved husband of Cecile. Funeral from Universal Chapel, Lexington Ave. at 52d St., Wednesday, Nov. 23, at 2:30 P.M.

    He worked for a long time in Philadelphia and also spent a great deal of time working in Washington.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Danny
    Why not try emailing the NY Times and see if they have anything more in their archives?
    Margaret

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    • #3
      Have a look at this http://www.flickr.com/photos/drmo/4217913412/ and this http://www.flickr.com/photos/drmo/4217145421/ about the funeral parlour

      Comment


      • #4
        This looks as though it might be of help http://freepages.family.rootsweb.anc...obituaries.htm

        Comment


        • #5
          Thank you Margaret I will look through your links now

          Danny
          http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=528974734

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          • #6
            Switching subjects, but did you try to track down an obit for Rev Whelan in Ottawa? Someone on FTF knew where to look for Toronto newspapers -- maybe they know where to look for Ottawa, too.

            Comment


            • #7
              I've not had a look for William Bernard Whelan yet. It's carzy but I know so much about all his brothers but all I know about him is that he died in 1901 and that it was at Ottawa University (Which I believe was run by priests of the OMI).

              Danny
              http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=528974734

              Comment


              • #8
                I'm going to be really pedantic now, but it may be of importance, lol.

                What Photofamily found for you was a Death notice, not an obituary. Death notices normally are intended to advise interested parties of the time and place of the funeral.

                Obituaries normally appear shortly AFTER the funeral has taken place.

                OC

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                • #9
                  OC That is very helpful to me, If gives me hope there was an obituary somewhere, perhaps still in the NY Times.

                  Danny
                  http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=528974734

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I would email the embassy to see if they can help, but really the NY Times is the best option as it seems to have been used by the family to announce the death and funeral arrangements so maybe they had an article published with more details later as OC suggests.

                    More usually it is a third party who writes an obituary about someone who is well known often a journalist who specialises in that area of writing.
                    Margaret

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I have emailed both the French Embassy in Washington and also the NY Times. Fingers crossed they can find something.

                      Cheers
                      Danny
                      http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=528974734

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        The other thing about obituaries, unless the person was very famous, is that they often appear where they will be of most interst, so not necessarily where the person last lived and died, but somewhere where he would have been wellknown in a local sense.

                        Is that making sense? For example, here in my very small Cornish town, we recently had a fullpage obituary for someone who died in the USA and had lived there for many years. The obituary was published here (but maybe elsewhere as well?) because he was born here of a wellknown local family, some of whom still live here, so it was of huge local interest, even though he hadn't set foot in the place for 50 years!

                        OC

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                        • #13
                          Yes, that absolutely right OC.
                          Margaret

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                          • #14
                            Yeah that makes sense. Peter Paul Whelan (AKA Pierre) worked in the Consular office in Philadelphia for over 10 years and then he moved on to the French Embassy in Washington for many years. When he finally moved to New York he must have been quite minted as the funeral parlour that sorted his funeral sorted funerals for the likes of Babe Ruth, Douglas MacArthur and Herbert Hoover.

                            Danny
                            http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=528974734

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              and then there's the search for probate records . . .

                              OC, I'm very curious about the Cornish obit. I have an ancestor who died less than 10 years after he left Camborne/Gwithian. He died about 1875 - do you think there might be an obit in a Cornish newspaper? How would I find it?

                              Comment


                              • #16
                                I've been browsing (to the end of 1940) the NY Times Historical for Peter Whelan - not finding anything with their search tool. NY Times used to publish probate court outcomes, but nothing showed up for him there, either.

                                Wonder if there are any surviving records for Universal Chapel. Someone on Ancestry's NYC boards might know. If you could find the funeral record, you might back track to a church, etc.

                                Comment


                                • #17
                                  People may what to see these in case they're going over ground already covered

                                  Phil
                                  historyhouse.co.uk
                                  Essex - family and local history.

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