Obituary Alerts by Email

Email alerts provide a way to receive notification when an obituary matching your criteria appears online, without requiring you to manually search repeatedly. However, not all alert systems work the same way, and understanding the differences can help you choose an approach that fits your needs.

This guide explains how obituary alerts work, what distinguishes high-confidence alerts from basic name matching, and how to minimize false positives.

How Obituary Alerts Work

Obituary alert services follow a general pattern:

1. You provide monitoring criteria: Name, location, and any additional identifying information
2. The service scans sources: Obituary databases, funeral home websites, newspaper obituary sections, and memorial sites
3. Potential matches are identified: Obituaries that match your criteria are flagged
4. You receive notification: An email (or text message) alerts you to review the potential match
5. You confirm or dismiss: You review the obituary details and determine if it's the right person

The quality of this experience depends heavily on how steps 2 and 3 are executed—specifically, what sources are scanned and how matching decisions are made.

Basic Alerts vs. High-Confidence Alerts

Obituary alert systems differ significantly in their approach to matching:

Basic Name-Only Alerts

• Match on first name and last name only
• Send alerts for every obituary containing that name
• Result in many false positives for common names
• Require you to review and dismiss many irrelevant alerts

High-Confidence Alerts

• Match on multiple data points: name, location, age, family connections
• Only alert when confidence threshold is met (typically 90%+)
• Significantly fewer false positives
• May occasionally miss matches if data points don't align

The trade-off is between noise and coverage. Basic alerts ensure you never miss a match but require more effort to review. High-confidence alerts reduce noise but may miss obituaries that don't contain enough matching data points.

Reducing False Positives

To minimize irrelevant alerts, consider these approaches:

• Provide more information: The more details you can provide—approximate age, city of residence, spouse's name, etc.—the more precisely the system can match
• Choose high-confidence systems: Services that require multiple matching factors send fewer but more relevant alerts
• Set location parameters: If you know the general geographic area, narrowing the search reduces nationwide false positives
• Use middle names: Including middle name or initial helps distinguish between people with common names

What to Expect from Alerts

When evaluating obituary alert services, consider:

• Source coverage: What obituary sources does the service monitor? More sources means better coverage but potentially more noise.
• Matching methodology: Does the service use simple name matching or more sophisticated multi-factor matching?
• Alert frequency: How quickly after publication will you be notified?
• Review process: Can you easily confirm or dismiss matches? Is there a way to see why the system flagged a particular obituary?
• False positive rate: For common names, how many irrelevant alerts should you expect?