Announcing engagements and births in the newspaper

Families not famines

Going out of fashion, it's true. But for those of us who have been tackling our family trees, these newspaper records have been very useful.

Not weddings or births but I think it’s still useful for deaths.

It used to be popular but I think it's just pretentious now.

My father always used to say "When I die don't put me in the paper" and we didn't.

HeyBetty but it’s still useful for older people, people who may not rely on modern technology.

I think deaths are different as people who knew you or your family years ago might wish to pay their respects, or at least know so they can say the right thing if they bump into a family member. Also families don't always know everyone who worked with the deceased, knew them in different capacities etc or are too distressed to make numerous phone calls.

But with engagements or new babies surely anyone who needs to know will get a phone call or text or see it on Facebook.

I an remember when our local paper required the signatures of both parties for engagement announcements. This was because a few men did not know they were getting engaged until it appeared in the paper!

I think it's still useful for deaths.

Weddings and births not so much.

I still see prayers to St, Jude occasionally.

The death notices still seem to be used but not so much birth and marriages here. At my time of life I look to see if any people I know have died when/if I get the Herald Sun and The Age.

Never really thought about it. I get my info through the grapevine these days and pretty quickly at that thank goodness.

I agree Zoejory it is useful for obituaries. I regularly check online, the local paper of the town where I was born. Obviously I would hear about the demise of friends, but not necessarily that of people that I knew years ago, but with whom I had lost contact,

Definitely useful for deaths as people often don't know when someone has died. But do they read the paper? There are also online websites where you can post a death, put a photo, and people can add virtual flowers and a comment. Lovely idea, but again not very helpful unless people know about it.
I think there should be somewhere online where everyone who has died gets listed. It would be so helpful. There was an old lady I lost touch with (mother of my much loved cousin who also died) and I would have liked to know if and when she died for my family tree.

Our engagement was in our local paper, our wedding photo on front page of same paper (obviously not much news that week!) and I put the births of our children and grandchildren in also, plus deaths of our parents.

Must emphasise this was all years ago, even the GC’s births, and I wouldn’t do it nowadays. But back then, our weekly local paper was eagerly read by everyone. Nowadays, it’s full of adverts and rubbish, hardly anyone seems to buy it.

And with SM, just no need.

Common practice here still.

We put a death notice in the paper for my mum, and were surprised to see people at the funeral who had read it, and put themselves out to come and pay their respects.

I put in my son and daughters engagements, for them to keep a copy of the newspaper that day to show their children/ grandchildren.

I wish people would put announcements of deaths and funeral arrangements in the paper. I don't use Facebook because I dislike it, but most people now use it as a means of announcing events and it is very difficult to discover dates, times and places without using it

I still occasionally read, hatches, matches and dispatches which was the norm for informing people, placed in the newspaper, before social media.

I placed the death of both my parents and was pleased to meet up again with friends and acquaintances who knew them. As I had no means of getting in touch with them, they appreciated being informed via a death notice in the press.

There are very few local newspapers left in print now.

Local paper still going strong here. I get most of the local news from it, am not on Facebook. Deaths notices in particular. And Council announcements, would never know their shenanigans otherwise

I find the announcement of the anniversary of a death event more bizarre....just strange.

The cost of putting notices in the local newspaper was such that I will never even consider doing it again.

We don’t buy a local paper but when people say they saw something in the paper it’s almost always a local one. My Dad originated from here and always bought a local daily paper. The coastal area I was born in only had a weekly paper. Very few births or marriages now but, as others said, the death announcements are useful for the wider circle of friends.

Far more people attended their funerals than we expected and we found out about things about them and their kindness that they would never have mentioned.

If you’re family is not very sociable then it makes sense to keep the service private. Each to their own especially when dealing with the death of a loved one.

I did have our engagement and wedding in the local paper, which no longer exists. Our more regional paper still has some funeral notices but I know a lot of people only have the notice on FB because of the extra cost, I only look at this paper online and certainly would not pay for a copy as there is very little local news that hasn't already been posted on FB. We have very good local community FB pages that keep you updated.