I have numerous obituaries for my ancestor Heipka (Mueller) Dirks who died in Coatsburg, Adams County, Illinois, in 1924. For the most part they contain the same set of details about her life. When one has an obituary for a person from three or more newspapers it would seem that all the bases are covered.
That’s not necessarily true.
I recently located another obituary for her in a Camp Point, Illinois, newspaper. It is the only obituary for her which indicates where the family attended church before one of the “correct” denomination was built in the town where they actually lived. I had already located the records the discovery was not earth-shattering. But it makes the point that another “copy of the same thing” may not be the exact same thing after all.
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I’ve discovered that in my own research. My 2nd great grandfather died from drinking muriatic acid. One newspaper article said he wasn’t feeling well, and mistook the bottle for medicine. He was a paperhanger and the acid was apparently something used in that work on a regular basis. Another article states that he had been depressed and talked about taking his own life. The 2nd story makes a lot more sense, even though the death was officially recorded as “accidental.”
That’s definitely a different version in the second account. The first one may simply have been trying to be more gentle in how they wrote it up.
I to have 7 or 8 obits for my grandfather in Wilmington DE. His f-i-l was well known so they added a little bit more in each addition. It helped to verify a story my dad , who was only 15 mo.old, told that he was sick n couldn’t attend the funeral. The obit added ” His wife n children couldnt attend as they all were sick “.