How to Find an Older Obituary
Obtaining copies of older obituaries is helpful in many situations. Often containing accounts of the deceased person's life, the cause of death and a list of close relatives, obituaries can inform family histories and provide answers to genealogical questions. When looking for an older obituary, a little detective work is often necessary. Resources available for uncovering a lost obituary include libraries, the Internet and funeral homes.
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Instructions
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Search online archives. There are websites devoted to digital archives of newspapers, such as Newspaperarchive.com and Newsbank.com, There are also genealogical and death records websites that have archives of obituaries, such as Interment.net, Legacy.com and Ancestry.com. Use the name, time period of death and location of death to search online databases.
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Visit the public library in the region or municipality where the newspaper that printed the obituary is located if you could not find the obituary online. Head to the reference section to ask for assistance. Inform them of the date of death to narrow down the newspaper publication time. Newspaper archives are traditionally kept on microfilm, however, many libraries have converted their microfilm collections to digital databases. In either case, the obituary is printable.
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Contact the funeral home that handled the person's burial if you are not able to visit the library and could find nothing online. Funeral homes typically keep records of the obituaries of all of the funerals they have handled. Give the funeral home the full name, spouse's name, date of death, date of the funeral and any other information that may help them locate the obituary from their records.
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