(Updated November, 2017)
Did you know that there are about 37 million newspaper obituaries available from FamilySearch in 32 different collections?
All but 1 collection have searchable indexes, and there are collections with images from newspapers, images from index card transcriptions only, and collections that are indexes only.
Now, the great majority (about 33 million) do NOT have newspaper images available for free UNLESS you have a subscription to GenealogyBank. FamilySearch and GenealogyBank have a cooperative effort to make the indexes available for free to FamilySearch users.
But that still leaves about 4 million images that are available for free. These are from private collections, libraries, archives and other institutions that have made the images available to FamilySearch for digitization.
Here is a list of the collections and links to each collection:
- Arizona Obituary Index to Arizona Newspapers, 1993-1994
- Arizona, Payson, Obituaries, 1948-2008
- British Newspaper Archives, Obituaries
- California, Fresno and Napa Counties, Obituaries, 1974-1997
- California, Napa and Butte Counties, Obituaries, 1866-1992
- California, San Joaquin, County Public Library Obituary Index, 1850-1991
- Canada, Royal Canadian Mounted Police obituary card index and notices, 1876-2007
- Currentobituary.com index, 2001-2014
- Guam Judicial, Land, Obituaries, and Census Records, 1712-2000
- Hawaii Obituaries Index, ca. 1980-present
- Idaho, Southeast Counties Obituaries, 1864-2007
- Idaho, Southern Counties Obituaries, 1943-2013
- Illinois, Cook County, Maywood, Maywood Herald Obituary Card Index, 1885-2002
- Illinois, Cook County, Obituaries, ca. 1970-1990
- Illinois, Mildred Hooper Obituary Collection, ca. 1959-1981
- Illinois, Tazewell County, Obituary Card Index from the "Pekin Times", 1914-2007
- Indiana, Daviess County, Washington Times Herald Obituaries, 1984-2012
- Michigan Obituaries, 1820-2006
- Minnesota, Clay and Steele County Obituaries, 1865-2006
- Minnesota, Obituaries 1865-2006
- Montana, Mineral County Obituaries, 1870-2010
- New Zealand, Obituaries, 1844-1963
- ObitsUtah Obituary Index
- Ohio, Crawford County Obituaries, 1860-2004
- Pennsylvania Obituaries, 1977-2010
- Pennsylvania Obituary and Marriage Collection, 1947-2010
- United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014
- United States, Obituaries, American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1899-2012
- Utah, Obituaries from Utah Newspapers, 1850-2005
- Utah, Tremonton and Garland Obituaries, 1959-2013
- Virginia, Winchester, Evening Star Obituaries, 1899-1909
- Wyoming, Star Valley Independent Obituaries, 1901-2015
So you can search for obituaries in standard digitized newspapers as those listed in the Newspaper Research Links on this website (The Ancestor Hunt), or search obituary indexes in the Obituaries Page (also on this website), or you might also want to try searching the FamilySearch collections above that have indexed and cropped newspaper obituaries for you!
Good Luck and Happy Hunting!