Both wedding announcements and obituaries normally list a woman’s maiden name. You may even find a picture of the individual!

To find a woman’s maiden name in a wedding announcement or obituary, you must at least know:

• The approximate date of the event
• The name of the groom for wedding announcements or the full name of the deceased for obituaries
• The state and city or town where the event took place

While not considered a primary source of info, newspapers can point the way to when and where such events took place and where primary sources can be found.

You currently have access to tens of thousands of individual newspaper collections on the internet through FamilySearch, Ancestry, the Newspaper Archive, and Chronicling America to name a few. All for FREE! –Aimee McDaniel