Lawrence library completes BSN obituary index

By Lilly Adkins

BSN Associate Editor

LOUISA — The Lawrence County Public Library has completed a project to index obituaries that have been published in The Big Sandy News over the last 135 years. The library’s genealogy/adult services coordinator, Caleb Farley, said that when he started the project, the index included obituaries from 1885 through 2012. It now includes obituaries up to the current date, he said. “We have them in four separate volumes from 1885 till 2019, and every week when The Big Sandy News comes out, I update a file on the computer, and at the end of the year, I will be publishing the previous year on the website and in our collection,” Farley said in a video posted on the library’s Facebook page. Farley said the newspaper's obituaries are a "very, very good resource" for genealogy research. The index can be found in the genealogy section on the library’s website, https://lcplky.org."One important thing to remember is the dates in the index are not the dates that the person actually passed away," Farley said. "It's the day that the obituary shows up in The Big Sandy News. And these aren't the full obituaries. These are just the names and the dates of when they appear. "Once on the site, click "genealogy" and then "Big Sandy News Obituary Indexes." The years of the publications are separated into four volumes: 1885-2003; 2004-2010; 2011-2012; and 2013 to 2019.Farley explained in his video that 2020 is currently being uploaded to the website and should be available for review in January 2021.Once you click on a year for review, names of the deceased appear with the last name first, and then the date of when the obituary was published in The Big Sandy News. Farley also said in his video that if you need help researching an obituary from the current year, you can contact him at caleb@lcplky.org or call him at (606) 638-4497 for assistance. Farley said that the Lawrence County Genealogical & Historical Society is also working on transcribing obituaries for its website available at http://lckghs.com/index.php/obituaries.The Lawrence County Public Library also has The Big Sandy News available on microfilm from 1885-2008 and hard copies of the newspaper from 2008 to current, which will eventually also be available on microfilm. The Big Sandy News is also available online through the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America Project at https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83004226/issues/.