* death notices

[jmurphy]

I just got issue 64 -- May 2008 -- of the magazine Your Family Tree (which appears here in the North American market as Your Family History for some reason not clear to me.)

They have an article on Death Certificates, which includes other ways to find death information so one can order the certificate.

One illustration of a newspaper shows a list of death notices from a newspaper.

The formula seems to be 'At [address, place] on [date], [name]' followed by 'Friends will please accept of this intimation.' or 'Friends will kindly accept this intimation.'

Checking the dictionary, I see that a secondary meaning of intimation =
'communication', 'announcement' which makes the meaning a little more clear.

Does anyone know the history of this expression?

Jan

ID:2875

[Arrick]

I got weird looks from an English friend the first time I talked about intimations in church. To him, all intimation meant was gossip. To me, it was what was said to be the church notices - i.e. fact, here in Scotland. I do not know what the meaning is elsewhere, but in Scotland it is used for serious messages.

Arrick

[jmurphy]

Thanks for your reply.

A quick lookup of the town names in the notices which have a location longer than the house name or street address reveals that they are from Scotland (two from Lanarkshire, one from Dunbartonshire).

Jan