GC-015: Check for an Obituary

If you can’t find a death certificate, such as if your ancestor died before his or her county or state started requiring the issuance of them, look in the old newspapers of the area to see if you can find an obituary. The time and place of the funeral, as well as the burial location, are often revealed in obituaries, even quite old ones. Once you have the name of the cemetery, finding the burial location is usually a simple matter.

Many old newspapers are now online, both on free and membership genealogy websites like GenealogyBank.com, Newspapers.com, and others. You can search for obituaries on those websites. If the newspapers from your ancestor’s area are not online, you can always go to the local historical society and see if they have records of old newspapers on microfilm. If you don’t live close to the historical society, you can call them and see if they will do a lookup for you. Many of them will. You can also try contacting the newspaper itself to ask where it keeps old issues and how you can search them.

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