How to find an old obituary, free.
Start with FamilySearch, which is free and has obituary collections, then try Chronicling America, the Library of Congress collection of free newspaper pages through 1963. If you know the town and the date, your public library may have that paper on microfilm or in a newspaper database, and many librarians will help you look. For a recent death, start with the funeral home.
Why it's worth finding.
An obituary often names a person's parents, brothers and sisters, a wife's maiden name, the town they came from and the church they went to. It can do the work of several records at once.
1. Find the date first.
Most searches go better once you know when the person died. A death certificate or a grave marker on Find a Grave will give you the date. Then look at the paper from that town for the week or two after it.
2. Search FamilySearch.
It's free to use, and one genealogist counted about 103 million obituary records there. Search the historical records by name and state, then look for collections with "obituary" in the title. Many entries are an index that points you to the newspaper, so write down its name and date.
3. Search Chronicling America.
The Library of Congress offers millions of newspaper pages through 1963, from nearly every state, free. A computer read the old print, so it makes mistakes. Try the surname alone, other spellings, and "Mrs." with her husband's name, since that's how many women were printed.
4. Ask a library.
Many of the old papers aren't online yet. The library in the town where the person died may have them on microfilm, on reels you can read there, and some will look one up for you if you give them a name and a date. Your own library may also have a newspaper database you can use free with your card, so ask before you pay for one.
5. For a recent death.
Start with the funeral home's website, then the local paper's site. Those pages are often easier to find than the paper itself.
Or just ask.
Tell Ancestral Fire one name, and it reads your tree, searches FamilySearch Family Tree once you connect it, and tells you what it found, with the source behind each fact. A real answer:
What doesn't the tree know about Patrick?
Your imported file records Patrick's birth around 1823, immigration to Boston around 1847, work as a cooper, and death in 1858. A note says he died of consumption, but the file has no attached birth or death record or 1850 census to verify details; his parents are named Patrick and Mary Johanna, but their dates aren't given.
From the Kennedy family's published tree: what an answer looks like when it says what it doesn't know.
See a whole conversation on How it works, or what it finds in one family: The Kennedy family tree, from Wexford to Dallas.
Keep reading.
- Questions to ask your grandparents. Ask about something specific: a kitchen, a first job, a day they still remember.