obits,death notices

If some one does not want to be listed in the newspaper that they had died. Is it possible for this to be blocked.

I cannot seem to find a way any info on not being listed

 

AFAIK the only way to get listed in the first place is to submit the notice/obituary. Don't do that.

And if you're using a funeral home or some such business, tell them not to do it either.

 

Whoever is handling the affairs has to pay the paper to print/post the obituary so just don't pay them to do it.

That said, I believe part of the reason its done is to notify creditors so the estate can be settled.

 

I believe a public notice of death is required, doesn't have to be an obit.

 

From what I can tell that's what I been told.

 

The funeral home will usually put the death announcement in the paper, and the local paper typically runs that piece for free (couple of sentences with person, age, date kind of thing). Obits are paid placements which the funeral home also places. Neither is mandatory.

When you get to the point where you are settling an estate you are required to post an official announcement in the paper of record to give creditors the opportunity to place any claims with the estate. That is not an optional piece.

 

So at a min the death notice is still going to be in the local newspaper?

 

No. I am pretty sure the only formal notification required to the government to act as public information re:estate is the "lodging" of a will with the county Superior Court recorder. If a person dies intestate, the state laws govern estate disposition.

I am not aware of any other public notification of death. Of course the executor is responsible for filing death certificates with active business relations of the deceased.

 

There's no death notice if they never find the body

 

Someone has to pay to put it in the paper, this also typically links to a 30-day freemium run on "legacy.com" with the option to pay for perpetuity. Often times, funeral homes will have their own registry. You could limit the reach by not buying an obit in the paper and requesting that the funeral home doesn't list the memoriam. But it will still be public record from the local municipality, and eventually end up in a records aggregator like "ancestry.com".

 

Our local paper will run the most basic of "matter of fact" announcement free of charge. Any extended descriptions or a photo require payment. I believe this is standard policy for any publication considered as a "paper or record".

 

I guess I'm a dummy, I always thought the obits in the paper were free till a couple years ago when my MIL died.