Free Guide to Finding Old Obituaries Online

Understanding Online Obituary Databases and Where They Live

Obituaries are public records that newspapers, funeral homes, and genealogical organizations have made searchable online over the past two decades. When someone passes away, their family typically submits an obituary to local newspapers, and many of these publications have digitized their archives going back decades. Major newspaper databases now contain millions of obituaries spanning from the 1800s through today.

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Several categories of websites host obituary information. Newspaper archives like Newspapers.com and Chronicling America (a Library of Congress project) contain scanned copies of actual newspaper pages, including obituary sections. Genealogy sites such as FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, and FindAGrave aggregate obituaries from multiple sources into searchable databases. Funeral home websites often post recent obituaries and maintain searchable archives. Legacy.com operates as a memorial network where families create online obituary pages, and many newspapers publish their obituaries through Legacy's platform.

Understanding these different sources matters because each one covers different time periods and geographic areas with varying completeness. A small-town newspaper might have excellent local coverage but limited national reach. A genealogy database might have obituaries from 1850 but sparse recent records. Knowing which databases specialize in which regions and time periods helps you search more effectively.

Practical takeaway: Start by identifying which geographic area and approximate time period you're researching. This helps you choose the right database first rather than searching randomly across all available resources.

How to Search Newspapers.com and Similar Newspaper Archives

Newspapers.com is one of the largest digitized newspaper collections, containing over 600 million pages from thousands of publications across the United States and other countries. The site includes newspapers dating back to the 1700s in some cases, though coverage becomes denser as you move toward the present day. While a subscription is required for full access to most content, the site offers free limited searches and some newspapers remain freely accessible.

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When searching Newspapers.com, begin with basic information: the person's full name and approximate year of death. The search engine will return results showing the newspaper name, publication date, and a preview of the article. You can narrow results by selecting specific states, date ranges, and newspaper titles. If you're uncertain about the exact death year, searching a five or ten-year window around your estimated date increases your chances of finding the record.

The search results display the actual newspaper page where the obituary appeared, showing you not just the obituary text but the surrounding advertisements, announcements, and other news from that date. This context can reveal additional family connections or historical information. For example, an obituary mentioning a person worked at a specific factory might appear on the same page as a factory advertisement, providing context about the local economy of that time.

Similar sites like Chronicling America (loc.gov/chronicling), which is completely free, offer access to millions of newspaper pages but with a smaller collection than Newspapers.com. Some regional newspaper archives exist as well—states like California, Texas, and New York maintain their own digitized newspaper collections that are often free to search.

Practical takeaway: Start with free resources and limited searches before paying for subscriptions. Try Chronicling America first for your target state and time period, as it covers many regions and costs nothing.

Using Genealogy Websites to Find Obituaries

Genealogy platforms like FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, and MyHeritage aggregate obituaries from multiple sources into organized databases. FamilySearch, operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, maintains the world's largest free genealogy database and includes millions of obituary records. Ancestry.com, the largest paid genealogy site, contains obituaries from newspapers, funeral homes, and submitted family records. These sites index obituaries in a way that newspaper archives do not—they pull out key information like names, dates, and relationships and make them searchable as structured records.

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On FamilySearch, you can search obituaries through the "Records" section by selecting death records and choosing your geographic location and time period. The site returns indexed records where the data has been extracted into fields like deceased person's name, birth date, death date, spouse name, and children's names. This structured format makes it easier to verify you've found the right person compared to reading through digitized newspaper pages.

FindAGrave.com specializes in cemetery records and memorial information. While primarily focused on burial locations, the site includes obituary text submitted by volunteers and family members. It's particularly useful if you know someone was buried in a specific cemetery but don't know the obituary details. The site contains over 200 million memorials and is completely free to search.

These genealogy sites often link to the original newspaper source, so you can read the full obituary exactly as it appeared in print. Some obituaries were submitted directly by families rather than extracted from newspapers, which means they may contain different information than what appeared in the newspaper version. Finding multiple versions of an obituary can reveal additional details.

Practical takeaway: Use genealogy databases to locate which newspaper published the obituary, then search that newspaper's archive for the original text. This two-step approach often yields more complete information than relying on one source alone.

Searching Recent Obituaries Through Funeral Homes and Legacy.com

For obituaries from the past five to ten years, funeral home websites and Legacy.com provide the most current and accessible records. Legacy.com operates as the largest online obituary network in the United States, partnering with thousands of newspapers and funeral homes to publish obituaries. When families submit obituaries to newspapers, many are automatically posted to Legacy.com as well, creating a centralized location for recent death notices.

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Searching Legacy.com requires only the deceased person's name and optionally their location or the newspaper that published the obituary. The site returns memorial pages that often include the full obituary text, funeral service information, surviving family members' names, and links to leave condolences. These memorial pages frequently remain on the site indefinitely, making Legacy.com valuable for finding obituaries published ten or more years ago.

Individual funeral home websites maintain obituary archives organized by funeral home location. For example, searching "Smith Funeral Home obituaries" plus a city name will often lead to that funeral home's website where you can browse recent obituaries or search their archive. Many funeral homes maintain searchable databases going back five to twenty years. This approach works especially well if you know which funeral home handled the services.

Local newspaper websites also archive obituaries on their own sites. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and other major newspapers maintain searchable obituary sections on their websites, though some require subscriptions for full access. Regional and local newspapers often provide free access to obituaries in their archives. Searching "[newspaper name] obituaries" plus a location will lead you to the specific publication's archive page.

Practical takeaway: For deaths in the last ten years, start with Legacy.com or a Google search for the person's name plus "obituary." These will usually lead you directly to the most recent published version without requiring paid subscriptions.

Tips for Finding Obituaries When Information Is Limited

Sometimes you know only partial information about someone—perhaps just a name and approximate decade, or only a town where they lived. In these situations, searching broadly and using additional records together with obituary searches increases your success rate.

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When you have limited details, begin with broad searches on FamilySearch and other genealogy sites using only the name and state. These databases include death records, census data, and cemetery records alongside obituaries. Finding someone in a census record or cemetery database narrows the time period and confirms the person's existence, which then helps you search for an obituary more effectively. For example, if you find someone in the 1930 census and know they lived in Missouri, you now have a more specific death window to search in newspaper archives.

Try searching for variant spellings of names. Many obituaries contain transcription errors or alternate name forms. A person named "Joseph" might appear as "Joe," "Jos.," or even "Josephus" in different records. Searching multiple variations increases your chances of locating the record.

Use location clues from other records to pinpoint obituary searches. If you find a death certificate listing where someone died (a hospital or county), search newspaper archives from that specific location and time period. Deaths were almost always reported in the newspaper of the city or county where they occurred, even if the person lived elsewhere.

Search for family members' obituaries when