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Hamilton County Genealogical Society Record Index - Data Base |
Index of death notices appearing in the Cincinnatier Zeitung, 1887-1901
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Title: Index of death lists appearing in the Cincinnatier Zeitung, 1887-1901 indexed by Jeffrey G. Herbert, Hamilton County Chapter, Ohio Genealogical Society, Cincinnati, 1999. Introduction from published book: Cincinnatier Zeitung was a newspaper published in German from July 1887 until September 1901 for German speaking immigrants of Cincinnati. Cincinnatier Zeitung, which simply means "Cincinnati newspaper" was published six days a week, and was a rather insignificant newspaper as far as subscription and influence is concerned. At its highest point, its circulation reached only about 6,000 readers, as opposed to a newspaper like the Cincinnati Volksblatt, which had a circulation of around 23,000 readers during its highest point. The newspaper can be classified as a specialty or niche newspaper since it catered mostly to union or organized labor issues. In fact, for several months, an endorsement appeared in the paper on a daily basis. The example, which follows appeared in the newspaper on 4, November 1896 on page 5, which stated "To whom it may concern: This is to certify that the Cincinnatier Zeitung has been endorsed and is regarded by the Central Labor Council of Cincinnati and vicinity as the one daily paper published in Ohio that advocates the rights of the members of labor organizations and is cordially recommended as a newspaper that will reach the trade unions." What makes this newspaper of significant value and use to the family history researcher, is that a list of death records was published for fellow Germans who were reported to the Cincinnati Health Department on a daily basis. These death records are of great value, since many of these deaths were reported due to the fact that these individuals died in a city institution. These were typically people who lived in mental institutions, orphanages, the 'poor house', and homes for widows and the aged. These were people who normally could not afford to pay for a death notice to be published in a newspaper. While these death records do not contain much information about the deceased, they contain the name of the person, their age, their street address, and sometimes the disease from which they died. Since not all this vital information can be contained in this index, the date(s) of the death notice is supplied after the person's name so that the reader may look for this additional information in the original notice if desired. This index contains the full name of the deceased, sorted alphabetically by last name, the dates that the death notice appeared in the newspaper, and the actual date of death, if published. Also listed is the age of the person in (YY-MM-DD) format, the page on which the notice was printed, the maiden name of the woman, if listed, and if the city of birth was mentioned in the notice, an '*' appears before the page number. In the case where a death notice is published for more than two days, only the first two days are listed, or the two days which contain the most information about the deceased and their family. The issues of Cincinnatier Zeitung covered by this index are the issues that are still in existence from July 1887 until September 1901. These issues are located in the Magazines and Newspapers Department of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County located at 8th and Vine Street. The death lists that were published in the paper can be identified rather easily since they had any of the following words in bold large print at the top of the list: TODESNACHRICHTEN', 'STERBEFÄLLE', 'TODTENLISTE', or 'DIE TODTEN DES TAGES'; which mean respectively: 'DEATH REPORTS', 'DEATH CASES', 'DEATH LISTS', or "THE DEATHS OF THE DAY'. This index contains the names of over 20,000 people who died between 1887 and 1901. In many cases, the names of the deceased were recorded in the original German spellings, however, sometimes they were also spelled using their English equivalents. To be certain that a particular name is not overlooked or missed, both spelling variations should be checked. There may be additional spelling variations to watch for, such as the frequent interchangeability of the letters 'C' and 'K' (e.g. Carl/Karl) and the use of double final letters in German (e.g. Herman/Hermann). The unique German letters and their usual English equivalents are listed below as an aid to the reader. ' ä ' translated into English as 'ae' ' ö ' translated into English as 'oe' ' ü ' translated into English as 'ue' ' ß ' translated into English as 'sz' or 'ss' Some examples are as follows: (Schäfer = Schaefer), (Schröder = Schroeder) , (Müller = Mueller) , (Bußmann = Bussmann) . Letters with an umlaut are sorted alphabetically* as if they came after the letter 'Z' (i.e. ... u,v,w,x,y,z,ä,ö,ü,ß).
* Note: in the online index, the German letters are sorted with the English. |