
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
Washington Obituaries
- Aberdeen, The Daily World, Obituaries 1972-1973 (Clippings)
- Adams County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Adams County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Adams County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Asotin County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Bellingham, Whatcom County, Bayview Cemetery Obituaries and Other Records, 1884-1995 (Clippings)
- Benton County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Benton County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Benton County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Camwood Obituary Project
- Chelan County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Chelan County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Chelan County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Chelan Valley Genealogical Society, Obituary Index
- Clallam County Obituary Directory (Transcriptions)
- Clallam County Obituary Index
- Clallam County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Clallam County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Clallam County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Clallam County, Obituary Clippings, ca. 1945-1993
- Clark County Obituary Indexes
- Clark County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Clark County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Clark County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Columbia County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Cowlitz County Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Cowlitz County Obituary Index
- Cowlitz County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Cowlitz County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Cowlitz County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Douglas County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Douglas County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Douglas County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Eastern Washington Genealogical Society Obituary Index
- Ferry County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Franklin County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Franklin County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Funeral Alternatives of Washington (Transcriptions, mainly from Pierce & Thurston counties)
- Garfield County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Grant County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Grays Harbor County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Grays Harbor County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Grays Harbor County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Grays Harbor Genealogical Society Obituary Database
- Island County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Jefferson County Death and Obituary Databases
- Jefferson County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Jefferson County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kent Area Obituaries Extracted from Early Kent, Washington Newspapers
- King County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- King County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- King County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kitsap County Death and Obituaries Index
- Kitsap County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kitsap County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kitsap County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kittitas County Miscellaneous Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kittitas County Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kittitas County, Obituaries (Abstracts)
- Kittitas County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kittitas County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Klickitat County Obituary Indexes
- Klickitat County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Klickitat County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Klickitat County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Lewis County Historical Museum Obituary Database
- Lewis County Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Lewis County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Lewis County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Lewis County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Lincoln County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Lincoln County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Mason County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Okanogan County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Okanogan County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Olympian, 1993-2009 Newspaper Index
- Pacific County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Pacific County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Pacific County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Pacific NW Cremation & Funeral Obituaries and Memorials
- Pend Oreille County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Pierce County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Pierce County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Pierce County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Pierce County, Obituaries, 1967-1997
- Pomeroy Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Renton, Obituaries Extracted from Record Chronicle Newspaper
- San Juan County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- San Juan County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- San Juan County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Seattle Times Obituary Index
- Skagit County Obituaries
- Skagit County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Skagit County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Skagit County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Skagit Valley Death and Obituary Index
- Skamania County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Skamania County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Snohomish County Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Snohomish County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Snohomish County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Snohomish County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- South King County Obituary Indexes
- South King County, Obituary Index
- South Snohomish County Obituary Index
- South Whidbey Island Genealogical Society, Obituaries (Clippings)
- Spokane County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Spokane County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Spokane County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Spokane Obituary Index
- Spokane Public Library Obituaries
- Stevens County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society Death and Obituary Index
- Tacoma, Washington, Obituary Index, 1882-2015
- Tacoma-Pierce County Obituary Index
- Thurston and Pierce County Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Thurston County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Thurston County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Thurston County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Tri-City Herald – Kennewick Courier Reporter Obituary Index 1927 –
- Tri-City Herald Obituary Index 2000-2016
- Wahkiakum County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Wahkiakum County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Walla Walla County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Walla Walla County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Walla Walla County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Washington GenealogyBuff Obituary Files
- Washington Obituaries – Obit City
- Wenatchee Obituary Index
- Wenatchee, Washington, Obituary Index, 1888-2009
- Western Cremation Alliance, Obituaries
- Whatcom County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Whatcom County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Whatcom County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Whitman County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Whitman County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Yakima County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Yakima County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
If you wish to search this state’s historic newspapers for obituaries, click on Washington Online Historical Newspapers Summary
For all Free Washington Links, click on the category of interest:
Newspapers
Yearbooks
Births
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Deaths
BMD Records
Alumni Records
Cemetery Records
Church Records
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One reply on “Free Washington Obituaries and Obituary Index Links”
database cover through 2016.
https://www.lewiscountymuseum.org/education/obituary-database/