Obituaries provide such information as the deceased’s name; age; birth date and place, including foreign town and country of birth; and parents’ names. They also contain the names and residences of living children, relatives, or other family members; maiden name; and occupation. Previously deceased family members are frequently mentioned. Obituaries have been published in Kentucky since the late-1700s. They may also indicate previous places of residence, immigration information, religion, and any social organizations or activities the deceased was involved in. For a publication on early Kentucky obituaries, see:

Clift, Garrett Glenn. Kentucky Obituaries, 1787–1854. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Pub., 1977. (FHL book 976.9 V28c; fiche 6048872; computer number 521.) This includes obituaries from several newspapers reprinted in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, volumes 39 to 40. It is indexed.

Eastern Kentucky University Library Special Collections and Archives has compiled an index to obituaries and death notices from Madison County newspapers, beginning with 1823.

The “Obituaries” and “Newspapers” sections of the United States Research Outline (30972) list sources for finding obituaries and the newspapers that published them.

Obituary files may be kept in local public libraries and by newspaper publishers. Some obituaries have also been published and indexed in genealogical periodicals that are available in the Family History Library. These are referenced in the “Places” section of the PERiodical Source Index (PERSI), which is described in the “Periodicals” section of this outline.

Obituaries and indexes from a few individual newspapers may be found in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

KENTUCKY- OBITUARIESKENTUCKY, [COUNTY]- OBITUARIESKENTUCKY, [COUNTY]- VITAL RECORDS

Return to top of page

Previous Document   Next Document

©1998, 2001 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. No part of this document may be reprinted, posted on-line, or reproduced in any form for any purpose without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. FamilySearch is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
[FamilySearch^TM: Research Guidance
Version of Data: 6/9/2001]