
Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians, and archivists, a great number of indexes to obituary information and transcriptions of obituaries from newspapers have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes provide the location in old newspapers where the obituary can be found. Sometimes the scanned newspaper clipping is included.
And remember you can always find online historical newspapers to search for obituaries for free on this website (links at Newspaper Links).
Here are a few articles that may be helpful:
- How to Find Historical Obituaries
- What is the Future of Obituaries?
- What is the Difference Between an Obituary, a Death Notice, an Obituary Index, and a Death Index?
- 32 Reasons Why Searching for Obituaries is Like Finding Gold
- 9 Ways to Effectively Find Obituaries in Online Newspapers
Each entry below will be appended with one of the five types of obituaries: Transcriptions, Clippings, Index, Abstracts, or Online.
Online entries present an obituary on a website that publishes online obituaries, generally, a phenomenon that occurs after the year 2000.
Indexes are just that, an index that at a minimum includes the deceased’s name and the name and date of the newspaper that the obituary appears in. Some indexes also include the date of death, so be careful if you are recording the date in your genealogy database. Make sure that it is the death date.
(Updated May 2023)
General U.S.
- Currentobituary.com index, 2001-2014
- Obituary Daily Times Index, 1995-2016
- U.S., Selected Jewish Obituaries, 1948-2002
- United Methodist Church Annual Conference Journal Memoirs and Obituary Index
- United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014
- United States, Obituaries, American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1899-2012
Alaska Obituaries
- Alaska Deaths Index Database
- Alaska GenealogyBuff Obituary Files
- Alaska Obituaries – Obit City
- Alaska Obituaries from the End of the Trail (Transcriptions)
- Alaska Obituary Archives (Index free only)
- Alaska Pioneer Deaths and Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Alaska Sportsman Magazine Death and Obituary Index (Transcriptions)
- Alaska USGenWeb Obituary Project
- Alaska Weekly and Alaska Sportsman Obituaries
- Aleutians East, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Aleutians East, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Aleutians West, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Aleutians West, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Anchorage Newspapers Obituaries Index 1981-2001
- Anchorage, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Anchorage, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Bethel, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Bethel, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Bristol Bay, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Bristol Bay, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Denali, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Denali, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Dillingham, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Dillingham, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Fairbanks North Star, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Fairbanks North Star, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Fairbanks North Star, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Haines, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Haines, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Homer News Obituaries 2012- (Transcriptions)
- Hoonah-Angoon, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Hoonah-Angoon, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Juneau Historic People Index (contains short Obituaries)
- Juneau, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Juneau, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kenai Peninsula, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kenai Peninsula, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Ketchikan Gateway, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Ketchikan Gateway, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kodiak Island, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kodiak Island, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kusilvak, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kusilvak, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Lake and Peninsula, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Lake and Peninsula, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Matanuska-Susitna, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Matanuska-Susitna, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Matanuska-Susitna, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Nome, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Nome, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Nome, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- North Slope, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- North Slope, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Northwest Arctic, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Northwest Arctic, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Obituaries of Alaskan Pioneers
- Petersburg, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Petersburg, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Prince of Wales-Hyder, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Sitka, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Sitka, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Skagway, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Skagway, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Southeast Fairbanks, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Tundra Times Newspaper Index 1962-1997 (Clippings)
- Valdez-Cordova, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Valdez-Cordova, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Wrangell, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Wrangell, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Yakutat, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Yakutat, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Yukon-Koyukuk, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Yukon-Koyukuk, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
If you wish to search this state’s historic newspapers for obituaries, click on Alaska Online Historical Newspapers Summary
For all Free Alaska Links, click on the category of interest:
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