Following on from griff20's thread regarding obituaries, esp. information provided by Peter ...
In this country 'obituary' normally means a biography and appreciation or assessment of someone's life written by the newspaper's staff. Obituaries in this sense are reserved for the great and the good (although sports people and entertainers are more prominent these days than they used to be). Is this what you're talking about? If so the answer is No.

If on the other hand you're talking about 'death notices', paid announcements by the bereaved, the answer, as Wirral says, is also No.
....am I correct in thinking that by the 1930s, obituaries (of the complimentary,short life-history variety) were becoming quite common. I ask because I have two from that period, one a farmer, the other a head ploughman. Would these have been paid announcements.

Carol