SMCGS Databases: Obituary Update

The latest update to the SMCGS Obituary Index has been uploaded to the website.  It includes the San Mateo county obituaries from the San Francisco Examiner from 1906 into the 1950s.  Those were the obituaries donated to SMCGS by the Colma Historical Association.  Those of you wondering about the obituaries for individuals who were not connected to San Mateo County,  will be happy to know that the San Francisco group of CGS collected the remains of the papers when we were done and have them stored while they contemplate their future.

Also new in the index are obituaries from the San Mateo Times from the 1920s.  Unlike most of the entries in our index, these obits are not in our digital collections, but they are available on Ancestry.

The index now includes over 76,000 names of individuals who either died in or were connected in some way to San Mateo County.

You can access it here.

Also be sure to check the Obituary Daily Times Index for San Mateo County.  The societies digital collections include obituaries from the San Mateo County newspapers indexed there.

The first page of the index gives information on the collections and names the many volunteers that have contributed to the index over the years.

2018 - Updated Obituary Index

To obtain copies of obituaries contact 
the SMCGS Research Team

Mortuaries - San Mateo & San Francisco

The following list was compiled in the 1980-1990s. It is hopefully the start of a more comprehensive listing of mortuaries in San Mateo County and where their records might be.  If you can help please contact Publications@smcgs.org.   The ads were gathered from the Examiner pages while working on our obituary project.  They are mainly for San Francisco mortuaries.

• Carlmont Funeral Chapel - Belmont 
• Rod McCoy (pre 1906)
• Duggan's Carlmont Chapel 
• Layng & Tinney - Belmont (SMCGS & RWC History Room have some records)
• Chapel of the Highlands - Millbrae records start Oct 1952
• Coehlo Bergler Dessem & Dufault - San Carlos 1947  
• White Oaks Chapel
• Crippen & Flynn Chapel - Redwood City 1950
• Flynn & Crippen
• Woodside Chapel
• Crosby N Gray & Co - Burlingame 1940 

• Stedt & Co - to 1927 bought by Frank Wycoff
• Frank Wycoff 1927-1940 bought by Gray 
• Gray combined with Crosby in 1943
• N Gray-Crosby & Co
• Duggan's Serra Mortuary - Daly City 1963
• Dutra-Randleman Coastside - Half Moon Bay 1960
• Johnson Menlo Colonial - Menlo Park 1947
• Jones Mortuary - East Palo Alto 1974
• Laswell W  & Co - Daly City 1915
• Nauman & Lincoln Mortuary - SSF
• Neptune Society of San Mateo
• Noftsger South San Francisco1953 
• Chapel By the Sea - Pacifica
• Garden Chapel Inc - SSF 63
• Larsons Garden Chapel 
• Patterson & O'Connell's Chapel - San Mateo 1942
• O'Connell's Chapel
• Redwood Chapel
• San Bruno Funeral Home - San Bruno 1974
• Jack Bowlds 1963-1974 
• Ray Ruskosky 1956-1963
• Neri 1941-1956 
• Snyder & Sullivan - San Mateo 1909

SMCGS Databases: San Mateo Times Gazette Index 1859-1899

One of the early indexes published by SMCGS is the San Mateo Times Gazette Index 1859-1899 compiled by Mary Lou Grunigen.

There are two parts to this index, which was originally published in 1996 in book form.  The first part is an index to vital records (births, marriages, deaths, probates, etc.) for the first forty years of this early publication.

The second part is an every name index to the paper from 1859-1867.  Here you might find entries for tax lists, memberships to social institutions, crime reports and much more.

The printed publication, like all SMCGS publications has been digitized and is available for public search on the SMCGS website.

San Mateo County Times Gazette Index

SMCGS Databases: Obituary Index Update

Over 10,000 names have been added to the SMCGS obituary index.  Every obituary in this index is available from SMCGS, see the research page for details.  The collection has grown in the nearly twenty years since the Peninsula Times Tribune gave SMCGS their obituary morgue when they closed their doors from the last time.  That collection, originally in envelopes, was indexed by the SMCGS computer club under the direction of Bob Tousey.  It was later photocopied by Barry Goyette and even later those pages were scanned.  All of those original obituaries came from the Redwood City Tribune or it's successor the Peninsula Times Tribune.

Not long after that collection was received, we received our first batch of obituaries culled from the files of the San Mateo County Historical Association.  In most cases we do not know what paper they were from, but assume most were from the San Mateo Times or duplicates of what we had received from the Redwood City Tribune.  SMCHA has continued to cull files over the years and we have added them to our collection as they are received.  Other minor collections have also been added as thy are received.  

The most recent additions come from the Colma Historical Society.  They gave us over 50 years of rolled obituary pages from the San Francisco Examiner (1906-1959).  They in turn had received them from Woodlawn Cemetery.  It is unclear where they had originated. In some cases there were missing obituaries and crosses through others.

We have culled those pages for San Mateo County residents and are turning over the remains to the San Francisco Group of CGS. This project is only half complete, but it seemed a good time to update the online index to include those that are done.

Click here for index.
Click here to obtain an obituary listed in the index.

SMCGS Databases Online: James Crowe Register of Deaths

A transcription by Pam McReynolds, the James Crowe Register of Deaths was first published by SMCGS in 2000,  this volume is an extraction of the records listed in what is known as the San Mateo County Death Record book. The exact intent of the book is not known. There is duplication of many of the records found in San Mateo County Death Register 1 and the San Mateo County Coroner's Index 1, but some records found here are not in either of those volumes and some records listed in those volumes are not found in this volume.

It seems likely that this was the mortuary book of James Crowe, who served as the coroner and owned a mortuary. This would explain it being housed with the country records.

If you browse through this volume you will find it includes deaths that occurred elsewhere. Some
died elsewhere and were buried in the county. Some died in the county and were buried elsewhere. This is in keeping with it being the dealings of the mortuary rather than the coroner or the county.

Whatever the original intent, what you have here is a recording of some of the earliest deaths (1880s-1920s) in San Mateo County.  This is a full transcription of what is in the book including name, age, birth place, death date, death place, marital status, sex, race, occupation, cause of death, physician, cemetery, date of burial and mortuary.

If you do not find the record of someone who supposedly died in here, be sure to check both the San Mateo County Death Register (an index to the earliest death records will be available later this year on SMCGS)  and the San Mateo County Coroner's Index. Other possibilities for early death records are the newspapers or
church records. "

 Check out the other SMCGS Databases and good luck with your research.