The NCGS Look-Up and Obit Program is available to members only.

What Does the Program Do?
The NCGS Look-Up program is a service and benefit of membership. All people using this service must be members. As of 2004 each $15 annual membership entitles you to one free 30-minute Look-Up in the holdings of the NCGS Library OR an Obit Look-Up at the Niagara Falls or Lockport Public Library. After the free annual Look-Up, these services can be purchased for nominal fees.

How Can Existing Members Use This Service?
Existing members must fill out the Look-Up form for either the 30-minute Look-Up OR the Obit, and have this service completed free of charge. After their first request, all 30-minute Look-Ups will be $10 and Obits will be $6, both US funds. A link to the form can be found on the bottom of this page.

I Want A Look-Up But I Am Not A Member?
Anyone desiring Look-Up services who are not members must first fill out the membership application form and include their $15 along with the attached Look-Up form in order to receive these services. Then they get either ONE 30-minute Look-Up or an Obit search for the cost of membership and, starting in 2004, each year upon renewal! Additional Look-Ups are still available to members for $10 each and Obits for $6, each in US funds.

What Resources Can I Access For the 30-Minute Look-Up?
Only those that are in residence at the NCGS Library. Because this is a volunteer-staffed facility, we felt we needed to put some limits on what we can reasonably search. For now just the major references like census data, cemetery records, city and county directory information. However, in order to give people wider choices we have also designed a WILDCARD, which allows the Look-Up volunteer to select based on their own knowledge of the Library's holdings combined with the information the member has included in their request. This is at the risk of the member - we may not find anything! We also have a space to choose a specific publication, if known, such as one of those from the Manuscript list for example.

What Happens If My Information Only Takes 15 Minutes To Find? How Do I Maximize The 30 Minutes?
We have thought a lot about that! On the form you will see a space for "priority" - it must be a number. If you put one (1) after census data, we will start our search there. After we finish #1 we will go to what you have listed as number 2, and so on. When you receive your Look-Up reply, you will know where we left off and you can either send another request or stop there!

I want To Find An Obit But All I Have Is A Month, Year And City?
We will search a one-week timeframe during any year, but it is up to you to select that week. If you have even less information and still want us to look, you must at least guess at the city, month, year and week. Please understand - we may not come up with anything.

How Much Information Will Be Sent Back To Me?
Fees for the Look-Up service were established based on the member receiving one (1) business size envelope using first class postage. We can fit up to four (4) sheets of paper in that envelope. If we have additional information for you we will indicate that when your information is returned and ask that you send a SASE if you want the remaining information.

Download a printable copy of the NCGS Look-Up form (pdf*)


* Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader