To find an old obituary for free, first pin down the person’s death date and the town where they died, then search free newspaper archives such as the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, FamilySearch’s obituary collections, and your state or local library’s digitized newspapers. If nothing appears online, ask the public library in the town where the person died; many will look up an obituary from microfilm for a small fee or none. Grave sites such as Find a Grave and BillionGraves often carry transcribed obituaries too.
This guide walks through the order that saves the most time, the free sources worth checking, and what to do when the obituary simply is not online.
Step 1: Get the Death Date and Place Right
Newspapers are organised by title and date, not by name. An approximate date turns a hopeless search into a quick one. Look for the date of death in:
- A death certificate or a family Bible
- A funeral card, memorial booklet or prayer card
- A gravestone inscription or cemetery record
- Letters or diaries written around that time
- Older relatives’ memories (“the winter after the big snow”, “the year your mother was born”)
Then identify where the family was living. An obituary might run in the local paper, the paper of the town where the person grew up, and a paper where adult children lived. Note all three.
Dates from memory are often off by a year or two. Before you rely on one, check it using the approach in verifying dates in a family history story.
Step 2: Search the Free Online Sources
Chronicling America
The Library of Congress’s Chronicling America site is a free, searchable collection of digitised historic American newspapers. You can limit a search to a state, a newspaper title and a date range. Check the list of digitised titles and years for your state first, because not every local paper or decade is included.
FamilySearch
FamilySearch is free with an account. Search its historical records with the person’s name and death year, and look for collections of obituaries, newspaper indexes and death records. The catalogue also lists microfilmed local newspapers, some viewable online.
State and university digital newspaper projects
Many states run free digitised newspaper projects through the state library, state archives or a university. Search “[state name] digital newspaper project” and check what titles and years are covered before searching names.
Grave and memorial sites
Volunteers on Find a Grave and BillionGraves often add obituary transcriptions to memorial pages. Even when no obituary is attached, the burial date narrows your newspaper search to a few days.
Funeral home websites and Legacy.com
For recent deaths, the funeral home’s website or Legacy.com frequently has the full obituary. For older deaths, funeral homes that are still trading may hold paper records and will sometimes help family members.
Step 3: Use Search Techniques That Work With Old Newspapers
Old newspaper text is read by machine, and the results are imperfect. Adjust your searches accordingly:
- Search the surname alone within a narrow date range and town, rather than the full name.
- Try how the paper would have printed the name. Married women were often listed as “Mrs. John Smith”, not by their own first name.
- Try initials and nicknames: “J. W. Smith”, “Bill Smith”.
- Use spelling variants, especially for immigrant surnames.
- Browse the pages for a week after the death when search fails. Death notices were often tiny paragraphs in a column of local news.
Step 4: When the Obituary Is Not Online
Most local newspapers are still only on microfilm. That is not a dead end:
- Contact the public library in the town where the person died. Ask whether they hold the local paper on microfilm and whether staff or volunteers do obituary lookups. Give the name, the death date and any alternate spellings.
- Contact the local genealogical or historical society. Many have indexed local obituaries and will search for members or for a modest donation.
- Ask the state archives or state library, which often holds the most complete runs of local newspapers.
- Request microfilm through interlibrary loan at your own library, where that service is offered.
- Ask in online genealogy communities, where volunteers with access to local archives sometimes help.
Keep a Search Log
Obituary hunts often stretch across several weeks and many sources. Keep a short log of every newspaper, date range and spelling you have checked, and what you found. A simple table with columns for source, dates searched, terms used and result stops you from re-checking the same microfilm reel and shows a librarian exactly what you have already tried. When you finally write to a library or society, attaching the log makes your request faster to answer and more likely to succeed.
It also helps to search for relatives’ obituaries. A sibling’s or child’s obituary printed years later may name the person you are looking for, give their burial place, or mention the town where they died, which can lead you back to the original notice.
What an Old Obituary Can Tell You
Obituaries are among the richest sources for family history because they were usually written by people who knew the deceased. Look for:
- Names of surviving and predeceased relatives, including married names of daughters and sisters
- Towns where relatives lived at the time
- Church, lodge, union or club memberships
- Occupation, employer and military service
- The place of burial and the funeral home
- Details of the person’s character that no official record captures
Treat facts in obituaries as clues rather than proof. Ages and birthplaces were supplied by grieving relatives and are sometimes wrong.
Saving and Preserving What You Find
When you find the obituary, record the newspaper title, date, page and column. Download the full page, not just a cropped clip, so the context survives. If a relative has the original cutting, a quick phone capture works; this plain guide to scanning a document with your phone covers getting a flat, readable image.
Newsprint is acidic and fragile. For the original paper, follow the advice on how to preserve old newspaper clippings, and if you are writing a new obituary for someone in the family, the guide on how to start an obituary may help you see what older notices included and left out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I find an obituary with just a name?
Sometimes, for recent deaths or unusual names. For older deaths, you nearly always need at least the year and the town, because most old newspapers are only searchable by title and date or through imperfect machine-read text.
Are old obituaries public record?
An obituary is a newspaper article, not a government record. Anyone can read it in the newspaper’s archive, but access may require a library visit or a subscription service if the paper is not in a free collection.
Why can’t I find an obituary for my ancestor?
Not everyone received one. Before the mid-twentieth century, obituaries for women, children and poorer families were often short or absent. Look for a brief death notice, a funeral notice, or a mention in a local news column instead.
Will a library look up an obituary for me?
Many public libraries and genealogical societies offer obituary lookup services. Policies and any fees vary, so contact the library in the town where the death occurred and ask.
What is the difference between a death notice and an obituary?
A death notice is usually a short paid announcement with the name, date and funeral details. An obituary is a longer article about the person’s life. Search for both.