Q: My great grandfather killed himself in 1965, He lived in a very Small village, Tredegar, Wales. If I went to the Tredegar Library, would he of been in the papers or no? hey itsjustme I contactd them and they told me I need to go to tredegar?
A: Your great grandfather's obituary would most probably appear in a newspaper, but whether it actually mentioned suicide or some phrase like "self-inflicted gun shot-wound" would depend upon the practices of the particular local newspaper in which the obit appeared as well as what your family was willing to say about the incident. Case in point: during the early 1980s, I was a young general assignment reporter for a small daily newspaper in Texas, so in addition to my usual police, school, and business beats, I occasionally pulled duty at the obituary desk. Most obituaries were written by the families of the people who died unless they were very prominent, but a reporter also read the material and occasionally made additions and corrections as necessary. I particularly remember my first obituary assignment--trying to gather information on a woman who had killed herself. The newspaper's policy at that time was to write that suicides had died "after a short illness", a phrase meant to spare the family additional pain. In case the Tredegar Library doesn't have microfilm of newspapers dating back in 1965, you might also bookmark the following web page, which has links to all Welsh newspapers and media outlets: http://www.wrx.zen.co.uk/wales.htm