Last October FamilySearch.org and GenealogyBank.com announced a joint venture to make nearly a billion historical obituaries searchable online. Over 100,000 volunteers have been listed to help with the indexing, and records are being added to FamilySearch as they become available. Note the word "indexing." The volunteers are entering the names and relationships of individuals mentioned in obituaries, not transcribing the entire obituary text.  The collection "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014" - what's been indexed so far - can be queried at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2333694 I have already found it useful. For several months I've been working to identify family members of 84 WWII soldiers who were members of a particular Army unit. One of the lessons I've learned in this search is that it's generally easier to find information about deceased individuals than about surviving family... Of course, the best source for finding survivors is the obituary. I scored a find with the Family Search collection! I entered a name, death year (1997) and place (Colorado). Up popped the record I wanted to see!  The index listed three surviving children, and a daughter (oldest child?) had a very unusual surname. I found an address for her on Whitepages.com so I can attempt contact. Nearly 11 million images are already available on the FamilySearch obituary site. I will be keeping tabs to watch it develop.