As genealogists, we are just as interested in mundane details about an individual’s life as larger ones. Getting birth, marriage, death, and divorce information about someone is essential in building out a biography, while the minor details, like hobbies, occupations, and achievements, help flesh out a story and bring it to life.
Obituaries are most commonly found for ancestors deceased within the last 120 years and are a great way to help fill in these peripheral details about a person’s life.
What Can Obituaries Do For You?
Obituaries are something of open-ended questions for researchers. We aren’t certain there was an obituary published unless we have first-hand knowledge of it. If our searches turn up empty, are we not finding it because it does not exist or because we are not searching the right location? Also, we do not know what information is included or if it will be accurate. Despite these challenges, obituaries provide a wonderful glimpse into an ancestor’s life.
Some things an obituary may provide you with include:
- Birth, death, and burial dates and locations
- Marriage dates and spouse names
- Children and grandchildren names
- Names of siblings and respective spouses
- Occupation, Hobbies, Religion
Where Can You Find Obituaries?
Obituaries can usually be found printed or online in newspapers, or online from funeral homes local to the deceased’s last place of residence. A person who dies in Sioux City probably won’t have an obituary in New York City, for example.
Newspapers often have a recent archive available online. A quick search of the newspaper’s website will help locate the archive. Sometimes these will cost money to view articles or gain access to the archive.
If the newspaper does not keep an archive, or the date of the possible obituary is outside the range of the online archive, searching repository sites like the Library of Congress, Google Newspaper, FultonSearch, and SmallTownPapers can help track down a local newspaper.
Another possibility is a local library. Infrequently, local libraries will have an index of obituaries or may have access to local papers via their online resources. Even if you are not a member, contacting the library for assistance will usually pay off if they have a holding that might be of use for your research.
Modern Obituaries
Modern burial packages often include an online obituary hosted by the funeral home’s website. This move towards online obituaries was fueled by the overall decline of newspapers and brings with it a variety of challenges.
Obituaries offer genealogists and family historians a wealth of information. Sometimes difficult to find, the payoff is typically worth the effort it takes to find them. For assistance in finding more obituaries, I have a list of free newspaper resources over on the Genealogy Resources section of this site.
Happy Researching,
- Patricia Gray
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