The Ancestor Hunt regularly adds and updates new collection links, as well as searches for and fixes broken links.
(This page's most recent update is December 2024)
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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.
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
West Virginia Obituaries
- Barbour County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Barbour County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Berkeley County, Brown Funeral Home Obituaries
- Berkeley County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Berkeley County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Berkeley County, Rosedale Funeral Home & Cemetery Obituaries
- Boone County – Obituaries – Boone County Area Deaths 2016-2017,
- Boone County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Boone County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Braxton County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Braxton County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Brooke County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Brooke County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Cabell County Obituaries
- Cabell County Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Cabell County Obituary Indexes
- Cabell County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Cabell County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Calhoun County Obituaries
- Calhoun County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Clay County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Clay County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Doddridge County Obituaries
- Doddridge County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Elkins Intermountain Obituaries
- Fayette County Obituaries
- Fayette County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Fayette Tribune and Free Press Obituary Abstracts 1919-1920
- Franklin, Pendleton County Times Obituaries 1940-1966 (Clippings)
- Franklin, Pendleton Times and Petersburg, Grant County Press Obituaries (Clippings)
- Gilmer County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Grant County Obituaries
- Grant County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Grant County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Greenbrier County Obituaries
- Greenbrier County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Greenbrier County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Hampshire County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Hampshire County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Hancock County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Hancock County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Hardy County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Hardy County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Harpers Ferry, Eackles-Spencer & Norton Funeral Home Obituaries
- Harrison County Obituaries
- Harrison County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Harrison County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Hinton Daily News Obituaries (Transcriptions and Clippings)
- Huntington Herald Dispatch Obituaries 2000-2014 (Transcriptions)
- Jackson County Obituaries
- Jackson County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Jefferson County Obituaries
- Jefferson County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Jefferson County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kanawha County Obituaries
- Kanawha County Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kanawha County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Kanawha County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Lewis County Obituaries
- Lewis County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Lewis County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Lincoln County Obituaries
- Lincoln County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Lincoln County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Lincoln County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Logan County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Logan County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Marion County Obituaries
- Marion County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Marion County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Marshall County Obituaries
- Marshall County Obituaries
- Marshall County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Mason County Obituaries
- Mason County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Mason County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- McDowell County Obituaries
- McDowell County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- McDowell County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Mercer County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Mercer County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Mineral County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Mineral County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Mingo County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Mingo County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Monongalia County Obituaries
- Monongalia County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Monongalia County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Monroe County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Monroe County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Morgan County Obituaries
- Morgan County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- New Martinsville, Wetzel Democrat Newspaper Obituaries 1959-1963 (Clippings)
- Nicholas County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Nicholas County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Nicholas County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Northern West Virginia Obituaries from the Counties of Barbour, Braxton, Calhoun, Doddridge, Gilmer, Harrison, Lewis, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Preston, Randolph, Ritchie, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Upshur, Webster and Parts of Marion, Wetzel and Wirt (Transcriptions)
- Ohio County Biographies Index
- Ohio County Obituaries
- Ohio County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Ohio County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Parkersburg & Wood County Genealogy Index to Obits in the Parkersburg News 1930-2007
- Parkersburg News Obituary Index
- Parkersburg News Obituary Index 1970-1979
- Parkersburg News Obituary Index 1980-1989
- Parkersburg News Obituary Index 1990-1999
- Parkersburg News Obituary Index 2000-2007
- Parkersburg, Leavitt Funeral Services Obituaries
- Parson’s Advocate Obituaries
- Pendleton County Obituaries
- Pendleton County Obituaries
- Pendleton County, Deaths Reported in Early Pendleton County Newspapers 1877-1912
- Pendleton County, Deaths Reported in The Falmouth Outlook
- Pendleton County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Pendleton County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Pendleton County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Pendleton Times Obituaries
- Pleasants County Obituaries
- Pleasants County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Pleasants County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Pocahontas County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Pocahontas County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Preston County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Preston County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Putnam County Obituaries
- Putnam County Obituaries Search
- Putnam County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Raleigh County Obituaries
- Raleigh County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Raleigh County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Randolph County Obituaries
- Randolph County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Randolph County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Ritchie County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Ritchie County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Roane County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Summers County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Summers County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Taylor County Obituaries
- Taylor County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Taylor County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Tucker County Elkins Intermountain Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Tucker County Obituaries
- Tucker County Parsons Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Tucker County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Tucker County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Tyler County Obituaries
- Tyler County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Tyler County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Upshur County Obituaries
- Upshur County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Wayne County Obits
- Wayne County Obituaries
- Wayne County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Wayne County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Wayne County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Webster County Obituaries
- Webster County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Webster County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Webster County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Weirton Daily Times Obituary Index 1931-2014
- Weirton Daily Times Obituary Index 1931-2014
- West Virginia GenealogyBuff Obituary Files
- West Virginia Obituaries – Obit City
- West Virginia USGenWeb Obituary Project
- Wetzel County Obituaries
- Wetzel County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Wetzel County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Williamson Library Obituary Index
- Wirt County Obituary Archive
- Wirt County Obituary Archive (Clippings)
- Wirt County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Wood County Obituaries
- Wood County Obituary Index 1841-1875
- Wood County Obituary Index 1876-1885
- Wood County Obituary Index 1886-1890
- Wood County Obituary Index 1896-1900 V1
- Wood County Obituary Index 1896-1900 V2
- Wood County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Wood County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Wyoming County, Obituaries (Transcriptions)
If you wish to search this state’s historic newspapers for obituaries, click on West Virginia Online Historical Newspapers Summary
Good Luck and Happy Hunting!
Obituary Search Frequently Asked Questions
Many current obituaries can be found online via a Google search. These obituaries may be found on obituary archive sites, newspaper websites, or on funeral home websites. You may even find some obituaries by doing a search on social media. If it is someone who died many years ago, you should search newspapers, do a Google search, or look on local library websites.
Unless you visit a library with newspaper originals or access to a microfilm machine for newspapers that have been scanned, the easiest way is to search online newspapers. There are subscription newspaper databases and free historical newspaper collections. For free online collections, you should use The Ancestor Hunt’s lists of links to collections from the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Access to links to over 75,000 titles can be achieved, by going to that site’s Newspaper Links Page.
If you are looking at the original local newspaper or a scanned copy, just go to the Obituary section in the few days following the death. If you are searching online, it is more difficult because the newspaper had to be scanned and the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process had to be applied. Depending on the quality of the original, you might need to be creative with your search criteria, especially if you do not have the date of death. Make sure that you are looking in the right location as well as making sure that the online newspaper collection has a date range that includes the date of death.
Fortunately, public libraries, some genealogy sites, and genealogy societies have transcribed millions of newspaper obituaries, and they also have created obituary indexes that specify the deceased’s name, the title of the newspaper that contains the obituary, and the date of publication. Using The Ancestor Hunt’s Obituary Page will lead you to obituary and obituary index collections for the U.S. and Canada. It has about 20,000 links to free transcription, index, and clipping collections.
Many libraries and genealogy societies have either transcribed obituaries in their local area or have created obituary indexes that list the deceased’s name, the title of the publication, as well as the date that the obituary was published. With this information, you can track down the newspaper that has the obituary in it. Often if you find the deceased in an index in a library or the library offers research services and the library has the newspaper, they may be able to send you a copy via email or postal mail.
Some of the most popular are Legacy.com’s Memorial websites, Forever Missed, and Ever Loved. To find a possible memorial site for someone who has passed away in recent years, look for these sites as well as complete a Google search.
3 replies on “Free West Virginia Obituaries and Obituary Index Links”
Here is an obit index for Mingo County, West Virginia that I came across. It is housed in the Williamson Library.
Thank you Mary. I’ve updated it in my database and it will appear in the next U.S. Obit update.
Looking for an obi for Cora Belle Holcomb Mullins died sometime in 1918. Maybe fall husband was Booker Mullins she was born in Clay county WV.