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Guide to locating newspaper obituaries for ancestry, family history, and genealogy research.

What Are Obituaries?
Obituaries are brief biographies of deceased persons, usually published by newspapers or funeral homes. They are also used to announce fueral arrangements. "An obituary (obit for short) is a news article that reports the recent death of a prominent person. In national newspapers, editorial obituaries are written only for people considered significant. In local newspapers, an obituary may be published for any local resident upon death. Two types of paid advertisements are related to obituaries. One, known as a death notice, omits most biographical details and may be a legally required public notice under some circumstances. The other type, a paid memorial advertisement, is usually written by family members or friends, perhaps with assistance from a funeral home. Obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects, even when the deceased is a public figure." Wikipedia: Obituary

What can you find in obituaries?
Earlier

Wiki Articles
Each U.S. state and country page has full articles written about finding and using obituaries. These articles provide details on the dates obituaries were kept, links to online records, and where records are kept in archives and other records repositories.

If a specific country is not listed below, try searching this page: Obituaries by country. See United States Census Online Genealogy Records for links to major collections of online U.S. obituaries.

Online Genealogical Records Pages
On the main page for each U.S. State page and country page, a blue button leads to a listing of online record collections.


 * Also, all the available Online Genealogy Records pages are linked at Online Genealogy Records by Location.

FamilySearch Catalog

 * Obituaries collected by FamilySearch, usually digitized and online, are listed in the FamilySearch catalog. Enter the name of the country in the "Place Field" and click "Search". A list of record categories will be provided. Select "Census" or "Census - Indexes."