Writing and Submitting Obituaries Through the Torrington Telegram
The Torrington Telegram has been publishing obituaries for residents of Litchfield County since long before most people alive today were born. It is a daily newspaper based in Torrington, Connecticut, and its obituary section functions as the primary local record for deaths in the area. If you are helping a family submit an obituary, or if you are doing genealogical research, here is how the process actually works and what you should know about the system. I have handled dozens of obituary submissions over the years, both for relatives and for people in the community who needed help navigating the process. The first thing to understand is that the Telegram does not write obituaries for you. The family or the funeral home provides the content, and the paper edits it for length and formatting. This matters more than most people realize because the difference between a well-structured draft and a rough one directly affects how much gets published. The submission process typically goes through the Telegram's advertising or news desk. You can call the paper directly at (860) 497-6200 or submit online through their website. The online route is faster but sometimes less flexible if you need to make changes after submission. I usually recommend calling if the obituary is longer or contains complicated details like multiple surviving family members across different states, military service information, or church organization memberships. The editor on the phone can tell you immediately if something needs adjustment.
Here is the practical breakdown of how it works: Step one: Gather the essential facts. Full name of the deceased, age, date and place of death, biography or life summary, surviving family members, predeceased relatives, service details, and where memorial contributions should go. That is the core structure. Anything beyond that is optional but often expected in this community. Step two: Decide on the length. The Telegram charges by line or by word count depending on whether it runs as a standard notice or a full obituary. A basic death announcement runs about a third to half a column and costs significantly less than a full five-hundred-word piece. Families often don't realize this distinction until they see the bill. I have seen people request two paragraphs and get billed for a full page because the submission was formatted as a display ad rather than a standard notice. Ask the editor upfront about pricing before you finalize the copy.
Step three: Submit with enough lead time. Obituaries need to be processed before publication, and the Telegram typically requires submissions at least one business day in advance for standard placement. If you need same-day or next-morning publication, call early in the day and explain the situation. They can usually accommodate urgent requests, but it is not guaranteed. One specific problem I ran into recently involved a family trying to submit an obituary for a relative who had moved away decades earlier but maintained strong ties to the Torrington area. The online form required a local address and the family only had a P.O. box from the funeral home handling arrangements. The system rejected it three times. I called the news desk, explained the situation, and they processed it manually over the phone. Always have the phone number ready as a backup. There are nuances that people miss when they draft these themselves. The most common mistake is including too much information about the funeral service while forgetting the biographical content that actually matters for historical record. The Telegram's obituary archive is used by historians, genealogists, and local researchers. A well-written obituary from 1974 tells you more about a family's structure, migration patterns, and community involvement than any census record. That is not something most families consider when they are writing under time pressure.
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Another thing to note: the Telegram does not publish photographs in standard obituaries without a separate layout fee and a high-resolution image. If you want a photo included, you need to provide it in the correct format and be prepared for the additional cost. Some families assume it is automatic. It is not. If you are researching past obituaries, the Telegram maintains an online archive accessible through their website. It is searchable by name and date. The archive goes back quite far, though the earliest entries are sometimes only as text without images or complete formatting. Microfilm copies are available through the Torrington Public Library and the Litchfield County historical societies if you need versions that predate the online database. The limitations are worth stating clearly. The Telegram's obituary process is functional but not sophisticated. There is no self-service editor, no preview tool, and no way to track the status of your submission after you send it. You either call to confirm or you wait. The online form is basic and occasionally has downtime during peak hours, which is usually mid-morning on weekdays when most people try to submit. Do not try to do it at 4:00 PM on a Tuesday expecting it to publish the same day.
For families who want more control over formatting and layout, some choose to place the obituary as a display advertisement instead of a standard news obituary. This gives you more flexibility with photos, fonts, and sections but costs substantially more. I have seen display ad obituaries run three to four times the price of a standard notice. It depends on what the family values. Some want the story told fully and are willing to pay for it. Others prefer the straightforward announcement format and move on. If you are doing genealogical work, I would also suggest cross-referencing with the Connecticut Death Index and any local funeral home records. The Telegram obituary is one source among several, and sometimes the details in the paper differ slightly from official records because of last-minute changes or errors in the information provided by the family. Nothing is perfect, but having multiple sources helps you verify what you find.
