Free Washington Obituaries and Obituary Index Links

6/8/2020

One of the main goals for genealogists in searching historic newspapers is to find obituaries. Obituaries are a gold mine of information. They provide death dates and locations, funeral and cemetery information and sometimes 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 death information and obituaries from newspapers have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes or index lists provide the location in old newspapers where the obituary can be found. Sometimes the obituary clipping or transcription is even provided.

Below is a list of links to Washington obituary indexes, an alternative means to newspaper searching to find obituary information. If the newspaper clippings are available, or if the obituaries are transcribed, they will be denoted. Please be aware that if you find a desired obituary in an index, that the holder of the actual obituary (e.g., library or genealogical society) may charge a small fee to send you a copy of the obituary itself.

(Updated June, 2020; recently added links are in BOLD)

General U.S.

Washington