Obituaries

When doing family history research, obituaries can be a rich source of information. 

Obituaries are short biographies published in local newspapers about someone who has died recently. You may also find death notices or funeral notices in the newspaper. They are even more brief, but are helpful to verify a place and date of death.

Obituaries might include:

• Names of family members
• Place of burial or interment
• Occupation of the deceased
• Deceased person's home address

Finding obituaries

Obituaries aren’t always easy to find. Not everyone has an obituary. Most of the time, it’s up to the family and friends of the deceased person to place an obituary or death notice. Often, there is a fee to get an obituary published, and that may stop some families from submitting one. You might be looking for something that doesn’t exist.

Step one: Find the date of death

The date of death gives you a time frame for your search. An obituary might be published very soon after the death — or weeks later. 

If you don’t know the date of death, try searching the relevant vital records archive. This at least gives you a starting point in time for your search.

Once you know what time period you are going to search, you will need to determine where you should look.

Step two: Search newspaper obituaries

An obituary is most likely to be in a local newspaper where the person had some connection. 

This might include:

• The place where the person spent the majority of their life
• Where they were born
• Anywhere they lived for a long time
• The last place they lived 
• Where their extended family lived

To find obituaries for people who lived in the Portland area, start with the library’s digital archives of The Oregonian 1861-present and the Oregon Journal from 1902-1982. 

For obituaries published outside of Portland, you’ll need different tools: 

• The library’s Heritage Hub has obituaries, death notices and funeral notices from newspapers all over the United States, including Oregon and Washington. Most were published in the last 10 to 30 years.
• If you need obituaries from other Oregon communities, try the University of Oregon Libraries’ Historic Oregon Newspapers. It includes 19th and early 20th century newspapers published in cities and towns across Oregon, plus some from recent decades.
• Many public libraries have local newspaper indexes and local newspaper archives. Try contacting the library in the town or city where the person you’re researching last lived, to see if they can help you find an obituary.

Ask a librarian for help if you aren’t sure where to look or which strategy to try first!