An obituary or obit is an article or notice in a newspaper that reports a person’s recent demise. It allows loved ones to share the deceased person’s accomplishments and significant life stories, along with the details of their memorial and funerary proceedings. An obituary also serves as a part of the grieving process by helping people come together and offer support and condolences to the grieving family members during their difficult time.

Offline sources

Local newspapers
Almost all newspaper companies post obituaries on papers as well as on their online websites. Some local newspapers websites keep obituaries on their websites for at least six months. If you are not sure of the name of the newspaper that is circulated in the deceased’s hometown, there are websites like obituaries.com that provide a direct link to obituary pages of many local newspapers across the country.

Mennonite archives
These include obituaries for members from the Mennonite archives. The obituaries date back to as early as 1884. If the obituary of the person you are searching for is of Mennonite faith, it becomes easy to search for free obituaries.

Public library
If you live in the same area as the deceased person, then you can search for obituaries for free in the local libraries. Local libraries usually have local and regional newspapers for several weeks. If you want an obituary that was published years ago, ask the librarian who will help you search through back issues of the local newspapers. You can read the old issues of the newspapers through microfilm present in the libraries. Since you cannot remove the microfilm from the libraries, make sure to carry a pen and paper when you are coming to the library.

Churches
There are churches across the country that have an assortment of information regarding the obituaries of the recently deceased, and the ones that have passed away long back. You can search for a free obituary in these churches as the information is available to the public. Some churches across the country house as many as 2 million rolls of microfilm records, more than 500,000 microfiche records, and an equal number of electronic records.

Online sources
Websites such as ancestry.com, legacy.com, etc have a searchable database of various kinds of documents that include obituaries, ship manifests to census records. These websites provide information on birth, marriage, and death. For a free obituary search, ancestry.com offers a free trial for 2 weeks. Similarly, legacy.com provides information on obituaries through 100’s of newspapers from across the country. To locate the exact obituary on the website, type in individual’s first name and select the state or county where the individual might have deceased. Once you locate the exact newspaper, you can go for free obituary search through the archives of the local newspaper on the internet.