
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
Massachusetts Obituaries
- Acton Civil War Veteran Obituaries (Clippings and Transcriptions)
- Barnstable County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Barnstable County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Belmont Obituary Indexes
- Berkshire County Newspaper Indexes
- Berkshire County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Boston Newspapers Obituary Index 1704-1800
- Boston Public Library Obituary Database
- Boston Public Library Death and Obituary Index
- Boston Recorder and Telegraph Obituaries, 1827 & 1828
- Boston Jewish Advocate Obituary Database
- Bristol County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Cambridge Public Library Obituary Card Index
- Chelmsford Newspapers Obituary Index
- Congregational Library Obituary Database
- Dukes County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Essex County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Fall River Herald News Obituary Index
- Falmouth Enterprise Obituary Index
- Fitchburg Sentinel Obituary Index
- Franklin County News Archive (Transcriptions)
- Franklin County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Franklin County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Hampden County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Hampshire County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Hampshire County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Harvard College Alumni Obituary Index 1851-1863
- Ipswich Public Library Obituary Index
- Lincoln Public Library Death and Obituary Index
- Lowell Death and Obituary Indexes
- Lynn Public Library Death and Obituary Index
- Massachusetts Centinel and Columbian Centinel Index of Obituaries 1784-1840
- Massachusetts GenealogyBuff Obituary Files
- Massachusetts Obituaries – Obit City
- Middleborough Gazette Newspaper Index
- Middlesex County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Nantucket County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- New Bedford Free Public Library, Obituary Index (1968-)
- Newton News Obituary Index
- Norfolk County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Plymouth County Obituary Index
- Plymouth County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Plymouth Old Colony Memorial Obituary Index
- Suffolk County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Suffolk County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- The Boston Jewish Advocate Index to Obituary Notices, 1905-2007
- Vineyard Gazette Death Notices 1850-1875
- Vineyard Gazette Death Notices 1884-1939
- Williams College Obituary Report, 1865-1875
- Woburn Public Library Newspaper Indexes
- Worcester County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
If you wish to search this state’s historic newspapers for obituaries, click on Massachusetts Online Historical Newspapers Summary
For all Free Massachusetts Links, click on the category of interest:
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