Ca. death index and no probate in Los Angeles? (search, skin, charge)

[howard555]

On the Ca. death index on Family Search, are the locations given as the county where the death occurred?
Anyone aware of libraries in these areas than can assist with a few obituaries?
Humboldt, Los Angeles, San Diego.

Also we were told that if you die in Los Angeles you are not required whatsoever to have probate records and/or report an inventory of the assets, unless you just want to file probate papers.
We have never encountered a locality whereby there was no legal documents to pass property from the deceased to the beneficiaries.

[PA2UK]

Which collection? There's two CA Death Indices on FS. If you click on "learn more" it will give you more info on the collection.

https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/...rical_Records)
https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/...rical_Records)

[howard555]

Originally Posted by PA2UK

Which collection?
https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/...rical_Records)

The 1940-1997. We'll check to see if "learn more" requires membership.
Los Angeles and San Diego are cities as well as counties.
Humboldt not so.

[PA2UK]

Originally Posted by howard555

The 1940-1997. We'll check to see if "learn more" requires membership.

It doesn't require membership, it's just a wiki. There wouldn't be much sense in providing all their records without a membership but not their wiki. Even if it did require membership, FamilySearch.org is free.

Los Angeles and San Diego are cities as well as counties.
Humboldt not so.

I would assume the locations are consistent - if the locations are reported as Humboldt on one record and that is only a county, the locations on another record as San Diego are probably also the county, not the city.

[howard555]

Obituaries are what we need and they may be difficult in those large counties.
The cities where they passed away is very sketchy if not unknown. The libraries out there have high research fees so without a volunteer the efforts may be curtailed.

[RVcook]

Originally Posted by howard555

Obituaries are what we need and they may be difficult in those large counties.
The cities where they passed away is very sketchy if not unknown. The libraries out there have high research fees so without a volunteer the efforts may be curtailed.

I had someone in the LA area search for an obit for my g-grandfather who was listed in that index and he came up empty so it's really kind of a crapshoot.

Because you are looking at smaller locations, you might want to try the local county genealogical/historical society. They may be able to help you.

As far as research fees go, yes, they can vary widely. I just got an email back from an historical society in a relatively large Wisconsin city that charges $20/hr. with a 3 hour minimum. I was only asking them for their fees to locate one obit where I have a name and date of death so spending $60 seemed excessive. Thankfully, the researcher got back to me immediately to clarify that locating an obit would cost $20 and that the 3 hour minimum was for 'needle-in-a-haystack' research.

Still...spending $20 for this particular obit may or may not be worth it when I compare that fee to spending $5 for the exact same service in a smaller town in another state. And that's assuming that the person will actually be able to locate the obit. Like I said: it's a crapshoot. Sometimes you just have to ask yourself how much it's worth it to get your hands on that obit.

RVcook