Finding a specific name in the Renner funeral home obituaries can feel like a maze if you aren't sure where to look first. Most people just type a name into Google and hope for the best. Sometimes it works. Often, it doesn't. You end up on a third-party site buried under pop-up ads for flowers or life insurance.
Kinda frustrating, right?
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The reality is that George Renner & Sons Funeral Home has a very specific way they handle their records. They’ve been around since 1929, so we're talking about almost a century of local history in Belleville, Freeburg, and Smithton. They aren't just a business; they're a local institution. When you're looking for an obituary here, you’re looking for a piece of the community's fabric.
Where the Real Records Live
Honestly, the "official" source is always going to be the George Renner & Sons website directly. Don't let the legacy sites fool you. While websites like Legacy.com or local newspaper archives often mirror the information, the funeral home’s own digital archive is where the family-approved version sits.
Why does this matter? Well, sometimes families update the service times at the last minute. Or they realize they forgot to mention a specific grandchild. The funeral home site gets those updates first. If you’re checking a third-party site, you might show up at the chapel two hours late because the data didn't sync.
They have three main locations:
- Belleville: The flagship on North Illinois Street.
- Freeburg: Serving the southern part of the county.
- Smithton: Their third community-focused branch.
All the obituaries for these locations are centralized. You don't have to check three different websites.
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The "Renner-Wikoff" Confusion
Here is something that trips people up all the time. There is a Renner-Wikoff Chapel in Urbana, Illinois. It is completely different from George Renner & Sons in Belleville.
I’ve seen people drive halfway across the state because they saw a name they recognized on the wrong Renner site. Seriously. If you are searching for Renner funeral home obituaries, make sure you know which city you're looking in. If it’s Metro East/St. Louis area, it’s George Renner & Sons. If it’s Central Illinois near the university, it’s Renner-Wikoff.
Writing a Tribute That Actually Matters
If you're here because you need to write an obituary for Renner, take a breath. It's a lot of pressure. You've basically got to summarize a whole life in a few hundred words.
Most people stick to the "born-worked-died" template. It’s safe, but it’s a bit dry. The best obituaries I’ve seen on the Renner site are the ones that mention the weird little details. Did they have a secret recipe for chili? Did they refuse to watch any movie that didn't star John Wayne?
What to Include (The Essentials)
- The Timeline: Full name, age, city of residence, and date of passing.
- The Family: This is the part everyone checks first. List the survivors and those who went before. Use the "nee" designation for maiden names; it's a tradition Renner still uses and it helps distant relatives find the record.
- The Services: Be crystal clear. Visitation times, funeral service location, and burial details.
- The Memorials: If the family wants donations to a specific charity instead of flowers, put that at the very end.
Renner is known for being "family-run," which sounds like a marketing slogan, but in Belleville, it’s actually true. You’ll usually be talking to a Renner—Jenna, David Jr., or Samuel—when you’re setting this up. They help polish the text so it doesn't sound like a robot wrote it.
How to Search the Archives Like a Pro
If you're doing genealogy or looking for someone from ten years ago, the search bar on a funeral home site can be finicky.
If the internal search isn't working, use a "site search" on Google. Type this into your search bar: site:rennerfh.com "John Doe". This tells Google to only look for that name on the Renner website. It works way better than most built-in site searches.
Also, keep in mind that older records (pre-2000s) might not be digitized. For those, you might actually have to call them or visit the Belleville Public Library’s archives. The digital age only goes back so far.
Why the Digital Obituary is Replacing the Newspaper
In the old days, if it wasn't in the Belleville News-Democrat, it didn't happen. Nowadays? Most people are skipping the $500 newspaper fee and just sticking with the funeral home’s digital tribute.
It’s easier to share on Facebook. You can leave "condolences" (digital guestbook entries) that the family can read months later when things have calmed down. Honestly, the digital guestbook is often more meaningful to the family than the obituary itself. It’s where the "I remember when we used to..." stories live.
What You Should Do Next
If you are looking for a current service, the first move is to check the Renner Funeral Home official listings page. Do not rely on social media rumors for service times.
If you're the one planning, get your "vital statistics" together before you call. They’ll need:
- Social Security Number
- Parents' full names (including mother's maiden name)
- Educational background
- Military discharge papers (DD-214) if they served
Having this stuff in a folder saves you about three hours of stress later. The Renner family handles the heavy lifting, but they can't guess your grandfather's middle name or where he went to high school in 1954.
Check the official site now if you need immediate service info. If you’re researching an older record, start with the site-specific Google search mentioned earlier to save yourself the headache of scrolling through years of archives.