Video:How to Find Obituaries on the Internet

Transcript:How to Find Obituaries on the Internet

Hi there, Blaine Pennington here for About.com. Do you have a friend or a loved one that has passed away that you want to remember or learn more about? Obituaries are a great way to get that overview of a person’s life and help you feel a connection with them even in death.

Tracking down an obituary can be tricky at times, but the internet is a great resource for finding the information you are looking for. Here are a few tips for finding the obituary you are looking for by using the internet.

Local Papers Hold Obituaries Records

First you are going to need to gather your background information on the person you are searching for. The information you will need is their last name, first name, place of residence, place of death and the date of death. Also as an added search tool, see if you can find out what newspaper or publication the original obituary was published in. This will often be the local paper where they lived before they passed.

Cross Check Internet Resources

If you are not sure of the exact dates of death, not to worry. Try using the Social Security Death Index. All you need is the persons first and last name and you can begin your search. Searching the social security death index will give you information like, the persons full name, birth and death dates, and last known residence.

Now that you have all of you background information you need to figure out which newspaper the obituary would appear in. Often it would run in the local paper of the person’s last known residence so utilizing the social security death index to obtain that information is key. The next step in your search is to figure out when the obituary would have run in the newspaper or publication.

Recent Deaths Likely Have Digital Obituaries

If the death occurred in the last 30 days, there is a chance that the obituary will still be on the newspapers website. If it is an older record you are looking for you can try searching the archives of the local papers. You can also try search engines like Google News Archives, US News Archives and International News Archives.

These are all helpful tools that can aid you in your search. Searching for obituaries can be a time consuming process so don’t get frustrated if you cannot find what you are looking for right away. Unless you are searching for information on a high profile individual, it may take a few tries to gather all the background information and find what you are looking for. For more information just like this visit us on the web at About.com. Thanks for watching.