How to Find Obituaries Online for Free (2026 Guide)

Obituaries are one of the richest genealogy sources available — they often include full names, birth and death dates, surviving family members, occupations, and even photographs. And despite what paid genealogy sites would have you believe, a huge number of obituaries are freely accessible if you know where to look.

This guide walks through every free method for finding obituaries, from recent deaths to records going back over a century.

Method 1: Cemetery Records (Start Here)

Before you search newspaper archives, start with cemetery records. Cemetery databases don't contain full obituaries, but they capture name, birth date, death date, and burial location — and that information lets you pinpoint exactly which newspaper and date to search for the full obituary.

GraveMapper indexes over 100 million US cemetery records and is completely free to search. Enter a name and state, and you'll get a death date — which is the key piece of information you need to find the corresponding obituary in a newspaper archive.

Method 2: Chronicling America (Historic Newspapers, Free)

The Library of Congress runs Chronicling America — a free, fully searchable database of historic American newspapers from 1770 to 1963. It's one of the best free genealogy resources in existence, and most people have never heard of it.

You can search by keyword (a person's name), state, newspaper, and date range. For deaths before 1963, this is your best free option. The search is full-text — meaning you're searching the actual words printed in the newspaper, not just metadata.

Find it at: chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

Method 3: Your Public Library Card

This is the most underused free resource in genealogy. Most public library systems provide cardholders free digital access to databases that cost hundreds of dollars per year on their own. Two are particularly valuable for obituaries:

• Newspapers.com. Owned by Ancestry, Newspapers.com charges $19–$49/month directly. Many libraries provide free access through their digital collections portal. This covers US newspapers from the 1700s to the present, including obituaries.
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Deep archive of major metro newspapers including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and others going back 150+ years.
• GenealogyBank. Specialized obituary and genealogy newspaper database. Again — free with many library cards.

Log in to your library's website with your library card number and look for "Digital Resources" or "Research Databases." What's available varies by library system, but most large systems offer at least one newspaper archive.

Method 4: Funeral Home Websites

Most funeral homes post obituaries on their own websites — and they stay there indefinitely. The challenge is knowing which funeral home handled the service. If you have a death location from cemetery records or family knowledge, Google the funeral homes in that town or county.

Many funeral homes also post to Legacy.com (a free obituary aggregator) automatically. Legacy.com indexes obituaries from thousands of funeral homes and is searchable by name. It's one of the best free resources for obituaries from the 2000s onward.

Method 5: Legacy.com (Free Obituary Search)

Legacy.com aggregates obituaries from funeral homes and local newspapers across the US and Canada. Their basic search is free — enter a name and location, and you'll get obituary results going back to roughly 1998.

Legacy.com is most useful for relatively recent deaths (last 25 years). For older obituaries, the newspaper archive methods above will serve you better.

Method 6: Social Security Death Index (SSDI)

The Social Security Death Index is a database of deaths reported to the Social Security Administration from 1935 through 2014. It gives you name, birth date, death date, last known residence, and last benefit location — not the obituary itself, but a verified death record that confirms you have the right person before spending time searching newspaper archives.

The SSDI is freely available through FamilySearch and several genealogy sites. It's a reliable starting point for 20th century deaths.

Method 7: Google Search (Simple but Effective)

Don't underestimate plain Google. For deaths from the 1990s onward, try:

Google has indexed a lot of local newspaper obituary pages, funeral home announcements, and guestbook entries that aren't in dedicated genealogy databases. Adding the year range narrows results significantly.

Method 8: State Death Records and Indexes

Every state maintains death records, and many states have made their historical death indexes searchable online for free. While these aren't obituaries, they confirm death date and location — which is often enough, and gives you the information to find the newspaper obituary.

FamilySearch maintains state death record collections for most states, many of which are free. Search FamilySearch first before paying for state vital records copies.

The Free Obituary Research Workflow

Put these methods together in the right order and you can find most obituaries without spending anything:

1. Start with GraveMapper — confirm death date and burial location (free)
2. Check Legacy.com — fast search for recent deaths, linked to funeral home (free)
3. Try Chronicling America — pre-1963 newspaper search by name and date (free)
4. Log into your library — Newspapers.com, ProQuest, or GenealogyBank via library card (free)
5. Google the funeral home — if you know the location, find who handled the service (free)
6. Try the SSDI — confirms 20th century deaths with SSA-reported data (free)

With this approach, you'll find the vast majority of obituaries you're looking for without paying for a subscription.