What's the best way to find obituaries online?

If you're looking for an obituary online, it can be hard to know where to start. However, there are several resources you can use to find what you're looking for.

Sometimes, an obituary can be found through a simple online search. At other times, you'll need to use dedicated genealogy (family tree) websites and online newspapers.

We hope this article helps you find the obituary you're looking for.

Search engines

Start with a basic Google search. If the person who died has an unusual name, you might be able to find their obituary with just their name.

If that doesn't yield results, try adding the word "obituary", the place of death, the year of death and the surnames of other family members. The married names of female relatives can be invaluable, as can the first names of family members.

You can also add quotation marks to search terms to narrow down results. If you search for "Pat Garrett" "Duluth", you will only get results that include those terms in full.

You can also remove words from search results by adding the minus sign (-). Let's say you're searching for the obituary of John Carpenter. You might get search results about carpenters as well as Carpenters. To avoid this, you could search for "John Carpenter obituary -woodwork".

Finally, you can use asterisks (*) to replace a letter or group of letters. This can be useful if you don't know how to spell the name of the person who died. You could search for "Dy*" to return all surnames starting with "Dy" or "P*per" to return both Piper and Pyper.

Genealogy websites

Genealogy websites let users find out more about their family history. They include historical records like birth, marriage and death certificates, census data and other documents. Some offer DNA testing.

People often use them to write a family tree. But they can also be used to find a specific obituary.

[IMAGE: a family tree (ideally on a computer screen)]

If you haven't found your obituary through a basic Google search, try a website like FamilySearch, Ancestry, FindMyPast, MyHeritage or The Genealogist.

Different sites offer different services. But using a combination of these will let you search historical records, death certificates and old newspapers. 

Local newspapers

Local newspapers often publish obituaries online. If you know that the person died in Duluth, for instance, you could find the local papers in the area and search their archives. It's worth knowing that some local newspapers ask you to pay for a subscription before you can access their content.

National newspapers also run obituaries, but these tend to be of famous or notable people.

Funeral home and cremation websites

If you can't find a person's obituary, you might be able to find a death notice on a funeral home or cremation website. This could give you information that will help you in your search for the obituary.

Did the person live in different places?

Perhaps the person who died lived in London, Paris and Duluth at different times of their life. If this is the case, you should search the newspapers local to each area.

What if I can't find the obituary online?

If the person died before the internet became widely used, their obituary may not have been digitised (put online). In this case, you will have to look in physical archives.

You could contact the newspaper local to the area where the person died. There may be physical archives you can search.

Obituaries can also be found in public libraries, university archives and genealogical societies.

Do you know the date of death?

If you know the name of the person who died and the exact date of their death, your search is likely to be quick. However, many genealogy sites let you search for obituaries within a time frame.

If you don't know the date of death, don't worry. You should still be able to find the obituary.