Those who read through last Sunday’s Boston Globe print edition probably took notice of what surely was a record, and by a vast margin, in the paper’s nearly 150 years of publishing: 22 pages in a row dedicated to 245 death notices, and 179 photos of deceased members of the Greater Boston community.

At first glance, readers probably assumed that this necrology was a reflection of the deadly impact of the pandemic that, specialists say, has been peaking in Massachusetts over the last week. And while that is likely the case, a close look at the attributions in the texts of the notices in this one journal allows only for that presumption, not a determination.

Historically – until the internet and social media kidnapped their advertisers – newspapers had been the main provider of local news about the dead. Set in small type – unlike the staff-written obituaries that usually feature a headline and a photograph or two – a death notice, which a family or a friend or an organization composes, relays to the community the when, where, and why of a person’s passing, maybe his or her age, and perhaps a short account of what he or she did during their lives that rates a mention.

Few standards of journalism apply to these notices that families pay to have published. Fact-checking is a rarity. Some give a cause of death, some don’t, some give an age, some don’t, some mention a person’s accomplishments and good deeds, and some don’t. Such was the case in the Sunday Globe’s impactful 245 family snapshots of mostly local deaths in a time of pandemic. They showed:

• Cause of death attributed to Covid-19 in 26 notices. Some of them listed ages, some didn’t.

• Four deaths of people 100 years of age and over; 60 of people aged 90-99; 51 of people aged 80-89; 20 of people aged 70-79; and 10 of people under age 65.

• There were 91 notices from residents of Boston and its neighborhoods. There were 33 from the city of Newton

• Of the 179 photos that ran with notices, 174 were of white people, 3 were of black people, including the Rev. Russell Winston, former pastor of St. John’s-St. Hugh’s parish in Grove Hall, one was of a man of Indian descent, and one was a man of Filipino ancestry.

With respect to that last notation, The Globe doesn’t pursue death notices; they come in from funeral directors and other outlets at the direction of families. Over the decades, minority communities, beginning with the Irish in the late 19th century and continuing to today with the diversity that defines Boston, have made much less use of the Globe’s death notices than white families. Marketing studies have suggested that’s partly a matter of culture and inclination and pricing, which many families find is too expensive for them to even consider telling stories about their departed relatives and friends.

For all that, the days of the Globe’s domination of the local deaths report have been over for years. Its print circulation has fallen dramatically over the last 20 years, diminishing the impact of its coverage. Yes, the notices are posted online, and are very accessible, but the ability of mourners to interact with the grieving family and connect with other friends and relatives on funeral home websites – messages of condolence, remembrance donations, flowers, has changed the dynamic forever, or so it seems.

Tom Mulvoy, a native of Dorchester, is a former managing editor of The Boston Globe.