Appleton Public Library Obituary Index
http://www.apl.org/history/obit/

Searching through microfilm for newspaper obituaries can be both frustrating and time consuming. The most recent addition to the Library's collection of local history Internet resources will make this task much easier. The goal of this project is to index obituaries and death notices from the newspapers published in Appleton from 1853 to the present. The indexing project began in 2000 and is an ongoing effort of Appleton library staff and several dedicated volunteers. Almost all obituaries from 2001 and 2002 have been indexed along with some from earlier years. New records are added regularly and the index is updated twice a week. The indexing of the papers dated between 1853 and 2000 is in its initial stages so only a small fraction of all obituaries or death notices have been entered.
The amount of information found in the indexed entries varies. Obituaries generally include more information on the deceased while death notices contain less information. When available, the information in the index includes:

Last name
First name
Maiden name
Spouse’s name
Date of birth
Place of birth
Death date
Date notice appeared in paper
Section and Page of notice
Cemetery

With the information from the index one can quickly find a copy of the complete obituary from the library's extensive collection of Appleton newspapers on microfilm. You can get to the obituary index from the library's home page (www.apl.org) under the heading "magazines, newspapers, indexes, and full text resources" The online index is very easy to use. Just type in a name and click search. It could save you a lot of time.