Ah, sounds like you WERE thinking of ordering through Vitalcheck or one of those other services. No way it should cost $35 direct from RI Archives even if you had to do something like get a domestic postal money order because your check wouldn't be drawn on an RI bank (Read your profile...mmmm, The Sunshine State...send some sunshine north, please!)

Providence Public Library will be taking a massive "hit" as of 1 Jul thanks to the recession so it may take awhile. All that will left of the Providence Public Library will be the main library at Empire St, Providence. See my post "Note to Researchers: Providence Public Library Shortens Hours of Operation" dtd 23 May 2009 for the whole scoop. Even without the upcoming downsizing, the PPL is on summer hours which means they are closed Sundays which, on those times I've made the trek to Providence, seemed to be the time I always saw the research librarians doing the searches on the newspaper microfilms to fill research requests.

Now that you've got more specific location information & a DOD for Thomas, it might help to speed things along if you contacted them again and added the new information to whatever you had previously sent them.

If you're hoping for a detailed, modern style obit, you may be disappointed. The one from the Providence paper for my paternal grandmother in 1930 simply said where she died, the date, my grandfather's name, where the funeral would be held from, time & location of the funeral mass and where she was buried. If you get the death register entry for either Elizabeth or Thomas, you should learn this without an obit.

My paternal grandfather's obit from 1941 was a bit better. In addition to all the particulars that my grandmother's had, it also listed all his children.

I still am looking in 1925 in the Providence paper for my husband's grandfather...the one I mentioned in the other reply who left 9 children and 1879 in the Providence paper for my husband's great-grandfather. I hope PPL has better luck finding something for you.