Listed are indexes and databases designed to help users research Florida death notices.
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Florida obituary records can be the key to filling in blanks in your genealogy records. There are numerous ways to search online or do some of the work offline. Generally, a combination of the two will help you the most. The trick is to gain as much data beforehand and this can lead to successful genealogy records.
For many states, it can be a little tricky to find your way through an online search for good results. Florida does at least have a state database that can help find obituaries, death records, marriage certificates, birth certificates and other vital records that can provide you with a good amount of info. It is still a good idea to try to have an idea of the county you need to search in for the obituary. Narrowing down the location within the state of Florida a person died in will make things less complicated in the long run.
Using state sites or other may mean you can get low to no cost records. It is more common to have success with sites that are fee based, especially if the date goes back before 1900. Newspapers are obviously the place to hunt for obituaries. The thing to remember, though, is that many papers did not print daily obits. In some instances, papers were not even printed daily. If the exact date does not work, try the date for that week or, in some cases, all the way out a month.
The other way to use the internet as a tool for a genealogy search through obituaries is to get info about libraries for different counties. Before traveling to a specific area in Florida, find phone numbers and a physical address to help with your offline search. You can also consider emailing possible contacts at libraries or other places before making the trip.
The best place to gain information about deaths and obituaries is a library. The difficult part could be, though, that you do not know the county you need to look in. Your best bet is to try to narrow it down to just a few counties. From there, find out about the libraries in the counties.
Some libraries divide up the storage of old newspapers or microfilm, some do not. Before traveling to an area outside of your hometown, determine if you are traveling to one branch or multiple locations to conduct your in-person Florida obituaries search. Establish contact with an employee or volunteer who may be able to help you while you are there.
If you cannot visit different areas in Florida, or do not live in the state, look into alternative methods of obtaining access to data. An employee or volunteer at a library may be able to help. If not, there are some ways to utilize volunteers who are part of a genealogist organization. The key is to find some way to get access to Florida obituary records, not just give up because of physical location.
Florida has become the retirement capital of the world and that means that there are more obituaries for this state than for any other. Luckily, there is also a laundry list of resources available to anyone who has a computer. You can start your search for Florida obituaries by searching the Bay County Index, maintained by the local Genealogical Society.
You can perform your search by last name and the listings here go back as far as 1987. Listings in Collier County can be found through the website for the public library. Most of the listings here were published in the local Naples newspaper and go as far back as 1927. The Florida-Times Union has a comprehensive search on their website that goes as far back as 1997. Both Pinellas County and the St. Petersburg Times have online searchable databases you can look through.
Finally, the Tampa Tribune has an online searchable index that works through the Hillsborough County Public Library. At this time, newspapers in Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami and Fort Lauderdale are getting similar databases online, too, so you may want to check to see the status of those sites in the future. Florida obituary records are easy to find once you know where to start.
Listed are indexes and databases designed to help users research Florida death notices.
The Indian River County Library Obituary Index is the primary resource for Florida death notices in that area of the state. In order to obtain a copy of the document, you need only send a brief email with the information that would be required to locate the file. A check for two dollars must also be sent, and upon receipt, the photocopy of the record will be mailed.
Below is a list of Florida newspaper obituaries to aid in genealogical research.
In modern times, the obituary section of newspapers is so often very standardized, and somewhat bland. The Jacksonville paper, the Florida Times-Union, is unique in that it offers, in addition to standard death notice searches, a single selected obituary from a leading citizen of the community is featured at the top of the newspaper's website.
If you do not know the exact date of a death or when an obituary was published, you may access it on the Marco Island Sun Times using the convenient search option. Current obituaries are listed on the Times's main Obituary page. The Times covers local news of this Miami suburb.
The Miami Herald, started in 1903, is an award-winning publication serving primarily Miami-Dade but circulating through the States and Latin America. On the main Obituary page, national deaths are reported. A link on the left provides the current day's notices for residents. One may also search death notices and guest books by surname.
Searching for obituary records for research or curiosity often leads one to major urban newspapers like the Tallahassee Democrat in Florida. Here, you can not only search for death notices by name and date, you can also read and sign guest books for the recently deceased, effectively creating a community of mourners.
The weather may just about always be sunny in Tampa, but life still goes on, which means that our older loved ones will eventually pass away. Remembering the deceased in sunshine of their life is this newspaper's specialty, but yet still remain highly focused around the journalistic standards of reliable information.
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