Most obituaries, at least those from long ago, were a mini-version of a person's life story. Husbands, wives, and children and sometimes dates were quite often mentioned. However, the following example from research I did a few years ago proves otherwise. Don't take what you read in an obituary as proof for all of the facts in a person's life. Read it, use it, but delve deeper to verify the details before making any assumptions.
The example:
Reuel Glen Crandall, born in 1893 in Iowa, was living in Casper, Wyoming prior to World War I.
An article in the December 1917 edition of the Casper Record newspaper is a source document for his marriage to Doris Bruce.
Rev J. J. Gibbs Wednesday night united in marriage Glen Crandall, popular employee of the Caspar Pharmacy, and Miss Doris Bruce, formerly a stenographer for the Binghenheimer Lumber Company. The young couple left immediately for Denver, where they will enjoy a brief honeymoon, returning to Casper to make their home.
Doris and Glen were living in Manville, Wyoming by 1920 where he had a cleaning business. In November 1921, their daughter, Helen was born (obituary). Helen's obituary indicates that her parents were Doris and Carl Schmidt with no mention of Reuel Glen Crandall as her father. A birth certificate would be proof of her parentage; but in all likelihood, being that her parents were in the 1920 census and she was born in 1921, it appears that Reuel Crandall was her father.
By 1930 Reuel Crandall, residing in Casper, was listed in the census as single. In the column "age at first marriage" there was no entry written, which would imply that he had not married. Although his marital status should have been listed as divorced and his age at first marriage should have been 24, for whatever reason he made no claim to having been married. One can assume he divorced between 1921, when his daughter Helen was born , and 1930 when he was listed in the 1930 Census living by himself.
Doris, on the other hand, married on April 21, 1929 in South Dakota. South Dakota school records as well as her obituary, show Helen, her daughter, using the last name of Schmidt, the surname of her stepfather. Although her obituary states that she was the daughter of Doris and Carl Schmidt, the 1940 Census proves that Helen was the adopted daughter of Carl because it states "adopted daughter" in the relationship column.
Doris Schmidt's obituary mentions her move to Casper where she graduated from high school, skips her marriage to Reuel Crandall, and then mentions her marriage to Carl Schmidt at Yankton, South Dakota.
It appears that, for whatever reason, neither Reuel or Doris wanted to reveal their marriage after the 1920 census record nor in the two obituary records of Doris and her daughter Helen. Various newspaper articles, including the one stating their marriage, and the 1920 Census are the only sources that reveal their marital relationship even though all indications in the two obituaries point to Carl Schmidt as the only husband of Doris and the father of Helen.
It was all just a "cover up" for a probable bitter divorce, so don't use an obituary as absolute truth!
