Obituaries are one of the best resources you can use when researching your family tree. While official documents often stick to just a few dates and locations, obituaries reveal your ancestors’ family ties, achievements, and community roles.
Obituaries can often open new branches of your family tree and identify relationships that are difficult to track in official documents, such as foster parents and step-families. This article explains everything you need to know about obituaries, including the information you’re likely to find, and how to use this to expand and verify your family tree.
Key takeaways on obituary research
- Obituaries are a type of death record and offer a variety of personal information and factual details for individuals that you may not find elsewhere.
- Often written by the individual’s family, obituaries allow you to learn more about their life, including their occupation, religious affiliations, education, and close family members.
- Obituaries have evolved with time and are largely influenced by the individual’s culture and the country they live in.
- You can use obituaries to connect different branches of your family tree, find potential leads for new searches, and confirm the identities of potential relatives.
- MyHeritage offers access to obituary collections from around the world, including Australia, Canada, and the United States.
Why obituaries are valuable for genealogists
When you’re creating your family tree, it’s easy to see everything as dates and timelines. Obituaries are a useful tool for any genealogist, as they show that your family history is more than just names and dates. Everyone in your family tree has a life story, and their obituary provides a window into their family dynamics, relationships, and achievements.
Obituaries can also shine a light on relationships that may not appear in other historical records, such as step-families and long-term partnerships that may not have been legally recognized. They’re also a useful tool to verify other information about the individual, such as their occupation and date of birth, as well as filling in gaps. Obituaries are especially useful if you’re researching a relative whose civil records are missing.
Where you can find obituaries
Obituaries appeared primarily in newspapers for most of the past two centuries, so historical newspaper archives remain one of the richest places to search. Websites such as OldNews.com, digitized newspaper collections, and national or regional newspaper repositories may help you access publications that are difficult to find in print.
In the digital era, obituaries often appear online. Many families post them directly on dedicated obituary websites, funeral home pages, or memorial pages created by loved ones. In some cases, people share obituary texts on social media, which may preserve information that never reached a newspaper.
You may also encounter obituaries on genealogy platforms like MyHeritage, where users add newspaper clippings, memorial pages, or obituary transcriptions to family trees. Local libraries, historical societies, and municipal archives often maintain obituary indexes or clippings files compiled by staff and volunteers. These collections may include smaller community papers or short-lived publications that are not digitized elsewhere.
What information obituaries typically reveal
The information you’ll find in an obituary will always vary, depending on who has written it and where and when it was published. You can usually expect to see the names of the individual’s immediate and extended family, including their spouse, children, parents, in-laws, siblings, and grandchildren. Unlike a death certificate, obituaries will often include the person’s place of birth, as well as their final residence.
During the American Civil War, obituaries evolved to include biographical information about soldiers to ensure the news reached as many relatives as possible. In the 19th century, obituaries found in newspapers were typically replications of the inscriptions on tombstones, providing the person’s name, date of birth, and date of death.
The next change occurred during the Industrial Revolution, when newspaper obituaries began to include employment information and burial arrangements. A standard template was established by the 1930s for newspaper obituaries, providing a death announcement, biography with a list of surviving relatives, and funeral details.
Obituaries can also offer clues to potential migration, including references to the person’s school, lifestyle, marriage location, and cultural affiliations. Newspaper obituaries can also provide information about burial arrangements, including the name of the cemetery and service details. Modern obituaries often take a more personal tone and spotlight the individual’s personality, hobbies, and achievements.
Step-by-step guide: How to use obituaries in your research
Whether you’re researching two generations back or want to learn more about ancestors you never met, obituaries are an important resource. You’ll likely encounter obituaries when building your family tree. They’re a great way to find new leads for potential relatives or to find out more about specific ancestors that have grabbed your attention.
Step 1: Find your ancestor’s obituary
MyHeritage offers access to millions of obituary collections from around the world, including the United States and Australia. You can search for obituaries using the individual’s name, date of birth, date of death or burial, and details like their parents’ names and residence.
Step 2: Record the name of everyone mentioned
Every name in an obituary is a potential lead for your family tree. Write down their names and how they were connected to the deceased.
Step 3: Cross-reference details with other records
Obituaries can be more informative than earlier records — especially when earlier records are unavailable, fragmented, or silent — but like any source, they deserve critical scrutiny and verification whenever possible.
Step 4: Use clues to find additional information
Obituaries are full of clues, from mentioning military service to church affiliations and geographic clues. Use this information to dig deeper into your family tree and investigate new leads.
Step 5: Update your family tree
Use the information from the obituaries to update your family tree, including adding new discoveries, and ensure you cite your sources for future referencing.
Research family obituaries by joining MyHeritage today
Obituaries are often one of the most personal records available when researching an ancestor. Since the American Civil War, obituaries have evolved to become more focused on the individual themselves, offering a unique look into their life. With MyHeritage, you can learn more about your family tree by getting access to millions of obituaries from around the world to help you tell your ancestors’ stories.
FAQs about researching obituaries
Why do some obituaries provide different information?
Obituaries are influenced by the culture, newspaper, and family preferences of the individual, so the information you’ll see will vary accordingly.
What should I do if the obituary doesn’t list a birthplace?
You can find this information using other official records, including censuses and church records.
How reliable are obituaries?
Most obituaries are reliable; however, spelling errors can occur, and people might be referred to by their nicknames.
How far back do obituary records date?
Newspaper obituaries only became widespread in the 19th century, although brief death notices do predate this.
Can obituaries help identify living relatives?
Yes, you can use obituaries to identify and trace surviving family members throughout different branches of your family tree.
