June 6, 2025

As a volunteer researcher, I’ve received lots of requests for obituary look ups over the years. If the requester had a date of death, checking in the local papers for an obit was a simple matter.

 

When I began my volunteering, most of the local historic newspapers were not digitized. They were available on microfilm, so a research request usually meant a trip to the public library.

 

Nowadays, things have changed. Many historic newspapers have been digitized. I still get requests for obituary look ups, but I rarely need to leave home to fill them. State historic newspaper projects, websites such as Genealogy Bank and Newspapers.com, and local genealogy society websites contain a wealth of online obituaries.

 

If you’re considering requesting an obituary look up, do some searching on your own first. Many states have free historic newspaper projects. Just google “historic newspaper project” and the state name to access them. Another free newspaper website is the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America project. Chronicling America has newspapers from all fifty states, although not all newspapers and dates for each state are covered. State newspaper projects and Chronicling America will usually not contain newspapers published after the early 1960s.

 

Another place to check for obituaries online is at local genealogical society websites. Some societies have digitized runs of local obituaries. For example, the Larimer County Genealogical Society website contains obituaries from 1988 to 2002. It is also worth checking with the public library for digitized obituaries for a local area.

 

There are also pay per view sites which contain obits. Newspapers.com is my favorite because of the ease of searching and the broad coverage they offer. Other newspaper specific websites include GenealogyBank.com and NewspaperArchive.com. All three websites offer free trial subscriptions. If you are doing a lot of research in an area, you may want to pay for a longer subscription. It’s a good idea to check these websites in advance to see whether they offer the newspapers and dates you need before you subscribe.

 

There’s nothing more satisfying than finding a record yourself for an ancestor. It gives you a great feeling of accomplishment. However, once you have unsuccessfully exhausted the possibilities available to you, it’s time to get some help. Fortunately, local societies usually have a researcher who may be more knowledgeable about local resources than you are.

 

I do that kind of research for the Larimer County Genealogical Society, and I’d be glad to hear from you if you need some help.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society