| The Westliche Post was a German-language
newspaper published in St. Louis from 1857 to 1938.
Indexing of the obituaries in
this newspaper is an on-going project made possible by the volunteer
work of Michael McDermott, working with Special Collections staff.
It is important to
take note of the ethnic group for which a death notice is being sought.
If there is a German surname in your family, definitely check a German-language
newspaper, especially prior to World War I.
Hurdles to overcome in searching for an
obituary in a German-language newspaper are primarily the language and
script, but the resulting source material is certainly worth the effort.
Occasionally, a non-German obituary appears in this German-language
paper.
A Westliche Post Obituary
During the time period for the index, the death notices were usually
found on the first page of the daily newspaper, except on Sunday, when
the notice was on an inside page.
A bold black line precedes and follows each obituary. (See image.) The
obituary column in the Westliche starts with the heading
Todes-Anzeigen, which means Death News. The obituaries are written
in a Gothic fraktur script common to that time. Some of the indexed references
are to memorials.
To facilitate
translation, a list of words frequently used in a German obituary
is available in Special Collections. A
typical obituary will list:
-
the name of the
deceased
-
maiden name if
a married or widowed woman
-
age
-
address
-
family members
and relationship to the deceased
More indexed years will be available in the
future. Individual obituaries are available on Westliche Post
microfilm located on Tier 4
at St. Louis County Library Headquarters.
Photocopies
of these obituaries are available from Special Collections. Looking for other German-language
newspapers? See our list of historical
newspapers on microfilm at St. Louis County Library.
Notes:
- For this index, women are listed
by their married name and maiden name, if known.
- If no age was listed in the
obituary, but an age was listed in the St. Louis Death
Register, the age was placed in brackets, for example:
[38 yr].
- If an umlaut appeared in the
surname, for purposes of a computer search, we listed the
name without an umlaut and also with the original letter and
an e.
For more information see:
Westliche Post of St. Louis: A Daily Newspaper for German-Americans, 1857-1938:
A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School
University of Missouri, by Harvey Saalberg, St. Louis: University of
Missouri, 1967, R977.866/S111W
Westliche Post Obit Index About the index
German Obituary Word
List Obit Example |
