How to Navigate Times Herald Obituaries in Newnan
Finding and reading the right obituary notice in The Times Herald isn't as straightforward as you might think if you're new to this. The paper covers Coweta County, Georgia, and while they publish deaths regularly, the archive system is old and somewhat fragmented. I've spent years helping people track down specific notices when they're looking into family history or verifying details for legal purposes, and most folks run into the same wall within five minutes. The newspaper runs obituary sections roughly three to four times a week, though the exact schedule has shifted over the years depending on staff availability. They also publish some notices online through their website, but the digital archive doesn't go back as far as the print editions do. My experience is that any death before about 2018 is essentially print-only unless someone happened to scan it for a genealogy site. The Times Herald itself doesn't digitize older issues systematically. If you need to read an actual obituary from the paper, your first move should be visiting the physical microfilm collection at the Coweta County Public Library in Newnan. They maintain a complete run going back several decades, and the microfilm reader is free to use during library hours. You'll need the person's full name and ideally the approximate date of death. The librarian there can usually help you find the right reel without much trouble. This cuts down the search time significantly compared to flipping through individual printed copies.
There's also an online option through their website that's worth checking first. You can search by name at timesherald.com, though the search function is basic and sometimes misses variations in how a name was listed. I've had cases where someone was listed as "Robert James Smith" in the obituary but only "Bob Smith" in the online index. Searching both versions separately gets results that the single search bar misses entirely. One thing people often don't realize is that The Times Herald obituaries include more than just the standard death announcement. Local papers like this tend to run extended life stories, sometimes going several hundred words, because the community is tight enough that readers expect more detail than a simple death notice. You'll frequently find mentions of military service, longtime employment, church involvement, and surviving family members listed out with relationships. That can save you a lot of independent research if you're doing family history work. The cost factor is another practical consideration if you need a copy. Ordering a clipped copy from the newspaper office runs about fifteen dollars, and they usually mail it within a week. The library microfilm route is free but you have to show up in person. If you're doing this from out of state, a third option is working through the Coweta County probate court records, which contain death-related documents that sometimes reference the obituary and can give you the exact publication date. That takes longer but it works when other routes hit dead ends.
I ran into a specific edge case last year where someone needed an obituary from 1974 for an estate matter. The library microfilm had the reel but the film itself was damaged in that section. The newspaper office had no printed copy on file either. What worked was contacting the Georgia Archives in Atlanta, which holds a secondary microfilm collection of local newspaper content going back further than Coweta County does on its own. It added a few weeks to the process but got the document eventually. Another counterintuitive thing about these obituaries is that the publication date listed inside the notice isn't always the same as when it actually appeared in the paper. Families sometimes choose to have the notice published a day or two after the date referenced in the text, especially around holidays or weekends when the paper might have limited distribution. If you're cross-referencing dates for legal or genealogical work, always verify against the actual printed issue rather than trusting the internal date alone. One common mistake people make is assuming that not finding a Times Herald obituary means the person wasn't noted locally. Some Coweta County families who lived near the border publish in the Chattahoochee Valley Times or even the Atlanta Journal-Constitution instead. If you're searching for a relative who died in Newnan but can't find the notice, expand your search to those publications as well. The coverage areas overlap more than most people realize.
Get the Full Details
The online database you'll find at ancestry.com and similar genealogy sites does include Times Herald obituaries, but those are user-contributed and inconsistent. I wouldn't rely on them as a primary source. Treat them as a secondary reference point that might give you a lead, then go to the original paper or microfilm to confirm everything. For most people just looking to read about someone they knew, the library microfilm or the online search tool at the newspaper's site will cover what you need. If you're doing serious research, factor in the extra time for verification and the possibility of damaged or missing records going back beyond twenty years. It's not ideal but it's the reality of working with local newspaper archives in a county this size.
