How to Find Death Notices for Free
Find newspaper obituaries online., Search for funeral home death notices., Use the Social Security Death Index., Search city or state death records., Visit the National Archives website.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Find newspaper obituaries online.
Websites such as legacy.com provide a searchable database of obituaries that previously ran in newspapers.For example, legacy.com provides free access to obituaries from newspapers in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Bermuda, Australia and New Zealand.You can run a simple search with just the person's first and last name, or you can narrow your search by limiting the time, or by specifying the country and state, county or region.
Legacy.com also allows keyword searches, which could be particularly helpful if you were unsure what name was used in someone's obituary.Legacy.com only includes obituaries as far back as February of
2001.Websites such as WorldVitalRecords.comand vitalrec.comhave more international death records and notices, as well as links to other sources of international vital records online.
Although you can see basic information about your search results, you must subscribe to the service to gain access to the records themselves. -
Step 2: Search for funeral home death notices.
If a funeral home was used, you can find an online database of official funeral home death notices at obitsforlife.com.
Obitsforlife.com allows you to search by name or location for death notices, or you can conduct a keyword search.
In addition to funeral homes in North America, the website includes global death notices from countries such as Brazil, India, the Philippines, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
Death notices on obitsforlife.com can only be uploaded by licensed funeral homes, so authenticity is assured.
At the same time, the site's database only includes listings from funeral homes that are members of the site, so results may be somewhat limited in that respect. , Several websites such as genealogybank.com and ancestry.com allow you to search the SSDI free of charge.
The SSDI contains records of people with U.S.
Social Security numbers whose deaths were reported to the Social Security Administration.Genealogybank.com has the SSDI from 1899 through 2011,while ancestry.com allows you to search from 1935 through
2014.You can search using as much or as little information about the person as you have, including first and last name, date of birth, date of death, last known residence, or Social Security number., State death indexes often go back further than online obituaries or the SSDI, and many are available online for free.
You can find links to death indexes for each state on sites such as http://www.germanroots.com/deathrecords.html and http://www.deathindexes.com.
Although generally you can find death notices through the early 1900s for free, you may have to pay a fee or join a subscription site to gain access to older death notices, such as those from the 1700s., The National Archives has information about vital records, including death records, and links to websites with free databases of death notices and records.Since these records are maintained by state or local authorities, they are not federal records and not held by the National Archives.
However, the National Archives website provides plenty of online research tools and other assistance for genealogists, historians and researchers.
The Archives does have casualty listings from the U.S. military as well as deaths of U.S. citizens in foreign countries. -
Step 3: Use the Social Security Death Index.
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Step 4: Search city or state death records.
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Step 5: Visit the National Archives website.
Detailed Guide
Websites such as legacy.com provide a searchable database of obituaries that previously ran in newspapers.For example, legacy.com provides free access to obituaries from newspapers in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Bermuda, Australia and New Zealand.You can run a simple search with just the person's first and last name, or you can narrow your search by limiting the time, or by specifying the country and state, county or region.
Legacy.com also allows keyword searches, which could be particularly helpful if you were unsure what name was used in someone's obituary.Legacy.com only includes obituaries as far back as February of
2001.Websites such as WorldVitalRecords.comand vitalrec.comhave more international death records and notices, as well as links to other sources of international vital records online.
Although you can see basic information about your search results, you must subscribe to the service to gain access to the records themselves.
If a funeral home was used, you can find an online database of official funeral home death notices at obitsforlife.com.
Obitsforlife.com allows you to search by name or location for death notices, or you can conduct a keyword search.
In addition to funeral homes in North America, the website includes global death notices from countries such as Brazil, India, the Philippines, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
Death notices on obitsforlife.com can only be uploaded by licensed funeral homes, so authenticity is assured.
At the same time, the site's database only includes listings from funeral homes that are members of the site, so results may be somewhat limited in that respect. , Several websites such as genealogybank.com and ancestry.com allow you to search the SSDI free of charge.
The SSDI contains records of people with U.S.
Social Security numbers whose deaths were reported to the Social Security Administration.Genealogybank.com has the SSDI from 1899 through 2011,while ancestry.com allows you to search from 1935 through
2014.You can search using as much or as little information about the person as you have, including first and last name, date of birth, date of death, last known residence, or Social Security number., State death indexes often go back further than online obituaries or the SSDI, and many are available online for free.
You can find links to death indexes for each state on sites such as http://www.germanroots.com/deathrecords.html and http://www.deathindexes.com.
Although generally you can find death notices through the early 1900s for free, you may have to pay a fee or join a subscription site to gain access to older death notices, such as those from the 1700s., The National Archives has information about vital records, including death records, and links to websites with free databases of death notices and records.Since these records are maintained by state or local authorities, they are not federal records and not held by the National Archives.
However, the National Archives website provides plenty of online research tools and other assistance for genealogists, historians and researchers.
The Archives does have casualty listings from the U.S. military as well as deaths of U.S. citizens in foreign countries.
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