Aren a death notice and an obituary the same thing?
In short, death notices are classified ads and obituaries are news articles. Death notices are taken out by the family to announce a death and to inform the community where services and interment are being held. Obituaries are narrative articles about the passing of someone accomplished or prominent, written by newspaper staff and often accompanied by a photograph. In the computer era, obituaries are included in full-text newspaper databases and death notices are not.
