It is painful to lose someone you love due to death. When it occurs, grieve can suddenly overtake you until you forget to let others know. A notice of death is important for letting family members and friends know about the passing away of a loved one. By getting the information about the death, they can support the funeral arrangements, send their condolences, and attend the funeral. When making a death announcement, you must use the right language for the announcement. You should be mindful of the close family members who can be affected by the announcement negatively.
Table of Contents
- 1 Death Announcement Templates
- 2 What is a death announcement?
- 3 Notice Of Death Samples
- 4 What is the importance of the death announcement?
- 5 How do you write a dead announcement?
- 6 Examples Of Death Notices
- 7 Death notice templates
- 8 How do you announce the death on social media?
- 9 Death Announcement Templates Social Media
- 10 How to announce a death in the family?
Death Announcement Templates
What is a death announcement?
Traditionally, death announcements have been made through newspapers or radio to reach a larger mass of people. Such announcements are charged per word, which can escalate the cost considerably.
It is a statement given publicly to let people know about the demise of someone. A death announcement formally confirms that the person has died and the burial plans are underway or will be announced later. A death announcement can also be called a death notice.
Notice Of Death Samples
What is the importance of the death announcement?
Any individual is known by different types of people. Some know the person casually while being close friends and family members. The person might have business or work relations with many people. When the person dies, not everyone will know and they might keep looking for them through telephone calls, emails, chats, social media, or in person.
A death announcement helps the close family members and the entire public know the person is dead. The sad news of their death should be shared widely to let the entire community know they lost a friend. There is no legal obligation to have a death announcement. It is out of a good heart to the community that a death announcement is made.
How do you write a dead announcement?
A death announcement is usually short but it is not easy to write, especially if it is a close relative you lost. You can refer to a notice of death sample online to give you an idea of what should be included. You can even edit a notice of death sample to include the details of your loved one.
Nevertheless, what you should have in mind are the important details of the person. If you are publishing the announcement on various media platforms, take note that some types of media limit the number of words you can use. These are the steps for writing a death announcement.
Start with the name of the deceased
Give the full name of the dead person. This is the name/s the person is mainly known by in the community. If they have an alias name, make sure you include it in the death announcement template. The essence is to let the public know beyond any reasonable doubt that it is the person that has died.
Give the date when they died
The date of death is essential when making the announcement. Indicate the full date such as he/she died on Month, Date, Year. You don’t want your departed one to be confused with someone else. Give the specific date. Some death announcements give the date and time of death but this is not a mandatory rule. It is enough information to give the date only.
Place of death
Some people do not include the place of death but it is necessary. Give the exact place of death, starting with the institution. For example, if the person died while undergoing treatment at hospital X, give details of the name of the hospital. Include the location of the facility. You may not give details such as a physical address, emails, postal, etc. Just give the name and city or state.
Detail the next plans
Give details on the next action or what arrangements are to be expected. Include the details for funeral arrangements. If there will be many meetings, let the public know where they will be held. Give details on when the memorial service will be held and the funeral date if you have it.
If it’s too early to give such information, let the public know you will update them in due time. Another optional but important detail you can give is where to send donations to support the funeral arrangement plans.
Examples Of Death Notices
Death notice templates
There are many types of examples of death notice to help you write a brief, detailed death announcement. The difference with the examples of death notices is the details contained in each notice of death sample.
Death notice template example 1
This type of notice of death sample doesn’t contain a lot of details. The template shows the following details:
- Name of the deceased
- Their age at the time of death
- The date they died
- Relationship with the person making the announcement
- The place to send donations.
Death notice template example 2
This type of notice of death sample gives more details than the first death announcement template. It gives the following details.
- Name of the deceased
- Age at the time of death
- Location of death
- Deceased family members or names of survivors
- Funeral service details
Death notice template example 3
This is an example of death notices that give more detailed information. It depends on what the immediate family members want to be included in the announcement. This type of examples of death notices includes the following:
- Name of the deceased
- Age at the time of death
- Cause of death
- Date of death
- Location of death
- Date of birth
- Location of birth
- The deceased parent’s names
- Marriage details
- Professional information/achievements
- A list of awards received
- Detailed names of surviving members
- Details of the funeral service
- Detailed information for donations.
Death notice template example 4
This type of death notices example contains details like sample 3 but more details are added.
- Name of the deceased
- Date of death
- Location of death
- Age is the time of death
- Date of birth
- Location of birth
- Early education
- Marriage life
- Professional information
- Professional interests
- Personal interests
- Personal characteristics
- Received awards
- Name of surviving family members
- Funeral service details
- Name of the funeral home
- Where to send donations.
It is necessary to communicate widely and rapidly when making a death announcement. One of the ways to make a quick announcement is to use social media. A death announcement template social media will help you achieve this goal.
When making a death announcement on social media, you should be careful to make a public post before you notify the immediate family members. This is how you create a death announcement template social media.
Send notification to close family members first
It is not right for the immediate family members to learn about the death of their beloved on social media. Before you post your death announcement template social media take a step to call the family members and break the news to them in the best way possible. By announcing without notifying the family members first, you might make the situation hard to manage.
Give the family time
The sad news will cause a huge shock to the family members. Despite the shock, most immediate family members will begin to gather the same day and start to make arrangements for the funeral. By giving them time, you will be waiting to receive more details from the family about the funeral date, funeral service, etc.
Once you have received detailed information about the funeral and other important details, you can complete editing the death announcement template social media and post it. Post the announcement on several social media platforms to help spread the word far and wide fast. If you have the deceased photo, upload it on social media. It will help the public identify the person with ease and reply with messages of condolences.
Be choosy with your wording
Although the immediate family is already aware of the death, be careful with the wording in your death announcement template on social media. You are not certain who else will read the message and get shocked strongly. Do a little bit of introduction about the person and then break the sad news strategically.
Be ready to respond to comments
Depending on how well known the person was, you might receive thousands of comments, questions, and messages of condolences. Be ready to respond to all the messages to keep the audience informed. Your social media post will include the following:
- Name of the deceased person
- Their relationship with you
- Date of death
- Details of services: Memorial service, funeral service, graveside service, body viewing service,
- A sharp photo of the deceased
- Any additional information that might be important
Unless the family has permitted you, avoid sharing detailed information about the deceased. Limit the amount of information you share and focus on the good memories about the deceased. Social media users may ask for more details about the deceased. You must refer them to the family.
Death Announcement Templates Social Media
How to announce a death in the family?
When a close family member dies, it is necessary to notify people widely and fast. There are different ways you can make the announcement, but you should also choose methods that will help you spread the sad news widely and fast.
Some family members would prefer to receive the sad information through a telephone call. Usually, most people post the announcement online on a memorial website. Here are different ways to announce the death in a family.
Make telephone calls
You might have a long list of people you can call to announce the death. However, telephone calls might take longer, and you might leave out many people. The best way to announce through telephone calls is to call the closest members of the family. When you make a telephone call, have a wise way to break the sad news.
Send emails
Emails can reach thousands of people in a short time. To help you understand the way to make a death announcement through email, check out a death announcement sample email. There is some important information that you cannot leave out to help the email recipients identify the person.
You will notice in the death announcement sample email the important details to include as follows:
- Name of the deceased
- Age at the time of death
- Your relationship with the deceased
- Their hometown
- A photo of the deceased
You don’t have to follow every detail in the death announcement sample email but you may add more details if you feel they will help the recipients get more information about the deceased. You may add the date of the funeral service, memorial service, and where to send support.
Announcement on a memorial website
The memorial website is one of the other examples of death notices. The website is created first and published on the major search engines. Once posted, people can search the internet and find the death announcement.
You may also copy the link to the website and share it widely on social media for people to open the link. The people who open the website can send their condolences, signup for more notifications, and send their donations.
Death announcement through print media
Death announcements through newspapers are one of the oldest methods of giving death notices. You may want to check a notice of death sample for a newspaper announcement. Usually, you will contact a print media outlet and request to make the announcement.
Death announcements through newspapers are charged per character and the total space you want the announcement to take. If you are including a photo, the space occupied by the photo will determine the charges.
Make sure you have included every important detail in the announcement. You have an advantage when making a death announcement in a newspaper because nowadays, they have the online versions of their newspapers. The death announcement shall be available both in print and online.
There are two categories of newspapers – the local and national papers. Each newspaper will have different charges. Decide whether you want to use both or one type. The main idea is to use a newspaper that will spread the sad news far and wide and the national newspapers will help you achieve this goal.
