Finding a specific person's record in a small town shouldn't be hard. But honestly, if you're looking for Dewald Funeral Home obituaries, you've probably realized that digital archives in Lancaster County can be a bit of a maze. Dewald Funeral Home, located in Quarryville, Pennsylvania, has been a fixture of the Southern Lancaster County community for decades. When someone passes away in a tight-knit area like Solanco, the obituary isn't just a notice. It’s a piece of local history.
People lose these records. They forget the date. Or maybe they just need to find service details for a friend they haven't seen in years. Whatever the reason, navigating the digital trail left by a funeral home requires knowing exactly where to look beyond just a basic search engine query.
Why the search for Dewald Funeral Home obituaries is different
Most people expect a giant, searchable database that goes back to the 1920s. That’s not how small-town funeral homes usually work. While the Dewald family has maintained a presence in Quarryville for a long time, their online archives generally reflect the era of the modern web. If you are looking for someone who passed away in 1975, you aren't going to find a sleek digital tribute page on their current website. You’re going to be looking for scanned newsprint or microfilm.
The "Solanco" area—which basically covers Quarryville and the surrounding townships—is unique. It’s an area where tradition sticks. Because of that, Dewald Funeral Home obituaries often appear in very specific local outlets before they ever hit the national aggregate sites like Legacy or Tributes. If you're searching today, you're likely looking for a recent service, but for genealogy buffs, the trail gets cold fast if you don't know the local paper's name.
Navigating the Quarryville digital landscape
The first stop is always the official funeral home website. It’s the most direct source. They host "Tribute Walls" where families can post photos and memories. It’s intimate. It’s also where the most "official" version of the service times will be. Don't trust a third-party site for service times if they conflict with what the funeral home says. Mistakes happen in scraping data. Always go to the source.
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But here is the thing.
Sometimes the website isn't updated instantly. Or maybe the family chose not to have a public digital record there. In those cases, you have to pivot. The Lancaster Online (LNP) archives are the heavy hitters here. Since Quarryville falls under the Lancaster umbrella, almost every significant obituary managed by Dewald will eventually find its way into the LNP.
What to do when the obituary isn't showing up
Sometimes you type in the name and get nothing. Zero results. It’s frustrating.
First, check the spelling. Seriously. Transcription errors are the number one reason people can't find Dewald Funeral Home obituaries. A name like "Schwartz" might be "Swartz" in a database. A "Catherine" might be a "Kathryn."
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Second, consider the timeline. There is often a 24-to-48-hour lag between a death and the publication of a full obituary. If the passing was very recent, the funeral home might only have a "pending" notice up. This is just a placeholder. It tells the community a death has occurred but that the family is still working on the details.
- Try searching by the date of death rather than just the name.
- Look for the spouse's name in the search query.
- Use the "site:" operator in Google to search only the funeral home's domain.
The role of the Solanco News-Sun
For those who live in the southern end of the county, the Solanco News-Sun is the "real" paper. It’s a weekly. This is crucial. If you are looking for an obituary from three weeks ago, it might have been published in the News-Sun even if it didn't make it into the daily Lancaster paper.
Dewald Funeral Home has a long-standing relationship with these local editors. Often, the obituaries written for the News-Sun are more detailed. They include the "local flavor"—things like membership in the local Lions Club, involvement with the Solanco Fair, or decades of farming in Colerain Township. These details matter. They turn a dry record into a story.
Historical research and the Quarryville library
If your search for Dewald Funeral Home obituaries is for a family tree, you're going to have to get off your couch eventually. The Quarryville Library has local history resources that aren't digitized. They have files. They have old newspapers on film.
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The Dewald family—specifically Paul Dewald and his staff—have historically been very helpful to the community. However, they are a working business, not a historical society. If you call them asking for a record from 1950, they might be able to help, but their priority is the families they are serving right now.
For deep history, the Lancaster County Historical Society (LancasterHistory) is your best bet. They have a comprehensive index of obituaries from the 1800s to the present. If Dewald handled the service, the record is likely in their card catalog.
Why obituaries are changing
Honestly, the way we write these things is shifting. It used to be a standard format: Name, age, town, survivors, service location. Now? We're seeing "life stories."
Families are opting for longer, more personal narratives. They mention the deceased's favorite brand of tractor or their famous sourdough recipe. When searching through recent Dewald Funeral Home obituaries, you'll notice this shift. The notices feel more like a conversation than a legal filing. This is great for memories, but it can make searching for specific "genealogical facts" a bit more work because they are buried in prose.
Actionable steps for your search
If you are currently looking for a record or trying to preserve one, follow this sequence:
- Check the Dewald Funeral Home website first. Use their internal search bar.
- Go to Lancaster Online. Search the "Obituaries" section specifically, as their general site search can be cluttered with news articles.
- Use Legacy.com. They often aggregate from funeral homes and might have a "Guest Book" that remains open even if the funeral home site changes.
- Save the digital copy immediately. Web pages disappear. If you find the obituary you need, print it to a PDF or take a high-quality screenshot. Do not rely on the link working five years from now.
- Visit the Quarryville Library. If the death was more than 20 years ago, this is where the physical "Solanco" records live.
The most important thing to remember is that obituaries are a snapshot of a moment. They represent a family's final tribute. Whether you are looking for information to attend a service at the facility on South Queen Street or you are piecing together a family history, these records are the primary bridge to the past in Southern Lancaster County.