
One of the main goals for genealogists is to find obituaries. Obituaries are a gold mine of information. They provide death dates and locations, funeral and cemetery information, and more importantly – information about the relatives of the deceased’s family and extended family. This family name information is often not found anywhere else.
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
Maryland Obituaries
- African American Funeral Programs
- Allegany College of Maryland Obituary Collection, 1983-1994 (Clippings)
- Allegany County Cumberland Times News Obituary Collection, 1889-1912 (Clippings)
- Allegany County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Allegany County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Allegany County, Obituary Collection, 1885-2014
- Annapolis Daily Capital Index of Death Notices & Obituaries
- Anne Arundel County Obituaries (short Transcriptions)
- Anne Arundel County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Anne Arundel County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Anne Arundel County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Anne Arundel Death and Obituary Index
- Baltimore Area Newspaper Obituaries (short Transcriptions)
- Baltimore City Obituaries
- Baltimore City, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Baltimore City, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Baltimore City, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Baltimore County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Baltimore County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Baltimore County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Bel Air Times, Death Notices, 1882 – 1899
- Calvert County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Calvert County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Caroline County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Caroline County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Caroline County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Carroll County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Carroll County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Carroll County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Cecil County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Cecil County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Charles County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Charles County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Cumberland Times Obituary Excerpts (Transcriptions)
- Dorchester County Historical Society Obituary Collection, 1923-2013
- Dorchester County, Obituaries (Abstracts)
- Dorchester County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Dorchester County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Dorchester County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Frederick County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Frederick County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Frederick County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Frostburg Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Garrett County Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Garrett County Obituaries Database (Clippings)
- Garrett County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Garrett County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Garrett County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Harford County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Harford County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Harford County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Howard County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Howard County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Jednosc-Polonia Death and Obituary Index Search
- Kent County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kent County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Maryland GenealogyBuff Obituary Files
- Maryland Obituaries – Obit City
- Maryland Obituary and Death Notice Archive
- Maryland State Archives Biographies (has Obituary info)
- Maryland USGenWeb Obituary Project
- Maryland, Obituaries of some Revolutionary soldiers copied from old Newspapers
- Mid Maryland Roots – Miscellaneous Obituaries
- Montgomery County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Montgomery County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Prince George’s County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Prince George’s County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Queen Anne’s County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Queen Anne’s County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Saint Mary’s Beacon Newspaper Index
- Somerset County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Somerset County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- St Mary’s County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- St Mary’s County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Talbot County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Talbot County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Washington County Obituary Index
- Washington County, Maryland, Obituary Index, 1790-2007
- Washington County, Maryland, Obituary Locator, 1790-2007
- Washington County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Washington County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Washington County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Western Maryland Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Wicomico County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Wicomico County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Worcester County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Worcester County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
If you wish to search this state’s historic newspapers for obituaries, click on Maryland Online Historical Newspapers Summary
Good Luck and Happy Hunting!
For other Free Maryland Links, click on the category of interest:
Newspapers
Obituaries
BMD Records
Photos
Yearbooks
Directories
Divorce Records
Naturalizations
Church Records
School Records
Coroner Records
Voter Records
Probate and Wills
Immigration
Mortuary Records
Alumni Records
Cemetery Records