Answers to the questions
we hear most.

Death notices on Eternal Rest are published by funeral directors. Ask your funeral director to publish one for you — they have secure access to Eternal Rest and will arrange the notice as part of the funeral they are handling.

There is a fee payable to the funeral director (set by them, not by Eternal Rest).

Eternal Rest does not accept death notices directly from the public, and we cannot make changes to a notice once it has been published — only the funeral director can.

All notices are archived and searchable by surname, parish, town, or date range.

If a loved one dies abroad and no Jamaican funeral director is involved, contact us directly and we will liaise with the funeral director handling the arrangements. Before publishing, Eternal Rest must receive proof that the death occurred. Acceptable proof includes any one of: a copy of the death certificate; a copy of the cremation certificate; a link to the notice on the funeral director's website; or an email from the funeral director abroad confirming they are handling the arrangements.

There is an admin fee for these notices. Send the proof, the wording for the notice, and any photo to info@eternalrest.com.jm. Once verified we send an invoice, and once payment is received we publish the notice and send you a link.

Notices on Eternal Rest are organised by Jamaican parish — when publishing a notice from abroad, choose the parish the family is associated with.

On the homepage or on /death-notices, you can search by surname, parish, date range, or any combination. The Death Notices listing shows the most recently published notices first, with filter chips and a sort menu.

If you only know the surname, enter it and search — you will see notices matching that surname from the last 7 days by default; widen the date range if needed.

Bookmark filtered views you visit often. For example, /death-notices?county=St.+Andrew always opens the latest notices from St. Andrew.

Eternal Rest launched in 2026 and our archive grows with every notice published since then. Notices remain on the site indefinitely — they are not removed once the funeral is over.

The Death Notices link in the header (or /death-notices) lists every published notice in reverse chronological order. The page also shows a "Notices this week" stat in the hero so you can see at a glance how active the last seven days have been.

Condolence messages are reviewed before publication to keep inappropriate messages off the site. This can take a few hours during busy periods.

The name field has a 60-character limit and the message field has a 1,500-character limit (limits include spaces and punctuation). You must click Preview Your Condolence first — the Publish Condolence button appears after that.

If the funeral director opened a condolence book on a death notice, a Condolences button appears at the bottom of the notice. If there is no Condolences button, the funeral director did not open one — contact them directly to ask.

Death notices remain on Eternal Rest indefinitely, so the condolence book stays reachable from each notice.

Two months after the death notice is published, the condolence book becomes read-only. No new condolences can be added after that. The book remains viewable, savable, and printable at any time using the Print button at the top of the condolence book.

Yes. Open the condolence book and click Print at the top — your browser will offer options like print, save as PDF, or save as Google Doc. The print view is laid out for paper so signatures and messages flow cleanly.

Online condolence books were used much less often before the pandemic — most condolences were given in person at the wake, the funeral home, or the church. If a notice from that period has no online condolences, it usually means the book was never opened, not that no one paid their respects.

Click Publish a Family Notice (or go to /family-notices/new). Then:

1. Choose the type of notice you want to publish (Acknowledgement, Anniversary, Anniversary Wall, Month's Mind, Memorial Mass, Birthday Memorial, or Memorial Service).
2. Add the loved one's details — name, honorific, dates, and an optional photo.
3. Write your notice. You can start from a template or write your own.
4. Preview and pay by credit or debit card.

You do not need an account to publish a family notice. The price depends on the type you choose and is shown on the first step of the Create flow. Once payment is received and the notice has been reviewed, it appears in the Family Notices section.

There are seven types on Eternal Rest:

• Acknowledgement — your family's public thank-you. Permanent on the site.
• Anniversary — remembers a loved one on the anniversary of their passing.
• Anniversary Wall — anniversary notice with an open message wall that stays open for one full year.
• Month's Mind — announces a Mass or gathering held about a month after the funeral.
• Memorial Mass — announces a memorial Mass.
• Birthday Memorial — remembers a loved one on their birthday.
• Memorial Service — announces a non-religious memorial gathering or service.

All types except Acknowledgement and Anniversary Wall are listed in Family Notices for up to 5 weeks. Acknowledgement is permanent; Anniversary Wall stays open for a year before becoming read-only.

Yes. During the Create flow, if there is already a death notice on Eternal Rest for the same person, you can link the family notice to it so they appear together. Acknowledgements and Month's Mind notices can be displayed on the original death notice; other types link in the opposite direction (a "linked death notice" panel appears on the family notice).

Up to three photos. We accept JPG, PNG, and WebP files up to 5 MB each. If you do not add a photo, a quiet floral placeholder is used instead.

Yes. The Create wizard offers four starter templates per type, plus a library of five popular verses (and an option to write your own). Templates are guides — edit any wording before you publish.

An Acknowledgement is your family's public thank-you. People typically thank: neighbours, relatives, friends, and carers; those who sent flowers, Mass cards, letters, condolences, or gifts; those who attended the wake, removal, funeral, burial, or cremation; doctors, nurses, and hospice staff; clergy, celebrants, musicians, and soloists; local associations, clubs, and charity groups; parking marshals; and the funeral directors.

You can group your thanks using a simple Markdown convention in the notice text — start a group with ## Heading and list people under it with - name. The page renders each group as its own thanks card.

The Candle Wall is a public, island-wide grid of every death notice with at least one candle lit on it. You can filter by parish, search by name, and sort by most recent or most candles. Visit it at /candle-wall.

On any death notice, click the candle next to the condolence call-to-action. A flame lights immediately. You can then sign your name in the small panel that appears. You do not need an account.

To keep the Wall meaningful, each visitor can light one candle every minute. If you visit several notices in quick succession, wait about 60 seconds before lighting the next.

Candles on the Candle Wall stay lit indefinitely — they are part of the permanent record of the notice.

On most family notices, visitors can leave a short message of remembrance, similar to a condolence on a death notice. Messages are reviewed before publication.

Anniversary Walls stay open for one full year from the day the notice is published. After that, the wall becomes read-only — messages remain visible and printable, but no new ones can be added.

Family notices other than Acknowledgement and Anniversary Wall are listed for 5 weeks. Their message walls close at the end of that 5-week window.

Yes. Each family-notice page has a Print messages link that opens a print-friendly view of the whole wall.

Yes. The homepage hero includes an interactive Jamaica parish map — click any parish to see its notices. The Death Notices listing also has a parish filter with per-parish counts.

Yes — visit /death-notices/search. You can combine surname, first name, parish, town, and a date range. Results are shown in editorial cards identical to the main listing.

Yes. Every filter pushes its state into the URL, so you can bookmark /death-notices?q=bennett&county=Kingston&range=week or any other combination. Reopening the bookmark restores the same results.

Email alerts for new notices by surname, town, or parish are coming soon. They will launch alongside public user accounts. In the meantime, bookmark a filtered URL — refreshing it always shows the latest matches.

Eternal Rest is an independent Jamaican platform for death notices, family notices, condolences, and the Candle Wall. We are not a funeral director and have no direct involvement in funeral arrangements — those are handled by the funeral director listed on each notice.

If a funeral is being livestreamed, the link is included in the death notice (usually in the arrangements section). If you cannot find a link, contact the funeral director — their details are at the bottom of the notice. Some livestreams are recorded; the funeral director can tell you whether a recording is available.

Email us at info@eternalrest.com.jm. We respond within one working day. For questions about a specific notice, contact the funeral director listed on it — they handle the arrangements directly.