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Genealogy Guide: United States

Introduction*

Even a brief obituary or death notice can offer clues and information about an individual’s burial place. Sometimes a photograph accompanies the article. Once you know the date of death, search for obituaries in local and ethnic newspapers.

*Additional obituary resources are listed in Major Death and Cemetery Resources section of this guide.

Obituary Databases

JewishGen USA Database

The JewishGen USA Database allows you to search obituaries from the major Jewish newspapers of several U.S. cities.

ProQuest Obituaries &  American Jewish Newspapers Databases

The ProQuest Obituaries database allows you to search obituaries from the following prominent U.S. newspapers: the New York Times (1851-1994), Washington Post (1877-1950), Boston Globe (1872-1922), Chicago Defender (1921-1975), Chicago Tribune (1852-1984), Los Angeles Times (1881-1984), and Atlanta Constitution (1868-1922). The American Jewish Newspapers database is comprised of a number of major historical and modern U.S. Jewish newspapers, including the American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger [New York, 1857-1922], the American Israelite [Cincinnati, 1854-2000], the Jewish Advocate [Boston, 1905-1990], and the Jewish Advocate [Philadelphia, 1885-1990]. You can limit your search of these newspapers to obituaries only. Note:  These databases are not available to the general public via the internet, as they require a paid subscription. They may be used for free on-site at the Center for Jewish History’s Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute. If you cannot visit the Genealogy Institute, please check your local public or academic library for these databases.

Obitsarchive.com

Obitsarchive.com is a comprehensive database of recent U.S. obituaries (within the last 10-20 years for most newspapers). Note: Searching the database is free, but you must pay a fee for each obituary that you view.

Online U.S. Newspapers

The following websites contain lists of links to both free and pay online newspaper databases, organized by state.  Note:  Many of the databases listed allow you to search a newspaper for names (or keywords) and to view images of the newspaper pages on which those names are found. However, some of these databases are indexes only (i.e. the actual newspapers are not viewable online), while others provide images only (i.e. are not searchable).