Listed are indexes and databases designed to help users research Pennsylvania death notices.
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Pennsylvania obituary records can be very helpful when conducting a genealogy search. It can be difficult to gather the information you need if, for example, you are trying to get data but find out someone was adopted. Pennsylvania regulations will not reveal the identity of the birth parents, so this could be a real obstacle to try to get around. Obituaries can help you gain the information you need.
Obituary records can be found online as well as offline. The best approach, though, is to use both methods to gain access to the information you need.
Looking online for Pennsylvania state obituaries will bring up sites that give you data usually broken down by county. If at all possible, it is a good idea to narrow down your search to one county. If you cannot do that, then at least try to get it down to just a few to look through. While doing your search by county, you will probably be looking through newspapers for obituaries.
Keep in mind, newspapers did not always print death notices on a daily basis. In fact, newspapers were not always printed daily. So the information you need could be a week to a month after the actual date of death. This is why having the correct county will be helpful, though. If the obituary is difficult to find, you will want to have as much correct data as possible to make this a successful search.
Having the county may also help with how far back dates go. Looking through one of the online databases, you can find that Butler County has death records listed as far back as 1818. If you can locate the county, you may be able to go back even farther than you thought.
Online you can also get the information you need to find libraries in select counties of Pennsylvania. You may even be able to email someone to begin the steps towards conducting your search in person. At the very least you can get the physical address for libraries in the county or counties you want to travel.
Libraries are the best resource when it comes to finding newspapers, microfilm and obituary listings. Again, the problem may be narrowing it down to a particular county. It would be impossible to travel to each county in the state of Pennsylvania and try to research data at each library. In fact, if you do not reside in the state, it may be more complicated to get the records you need.
If you can narrow down the search to just a few libraries, you may be able to contact someone at the library to request the obituary information you need. If an employee there cannot help, do some research to find out if there are genealogy volunteers in the area who can. Pennsylvania obituary records are not that difficult to obtain, if you can narrow down the county.
Searching for Pennsylvania obituaries online is easy. This is one of the most plugged in states in the union and there are over a dozen major online resources available to anyone in the state or around the world for looking up obits from the past. You can start your search at the Altoona Public Library.
They have stockpiled listings from as far back as 1936 all the way up to today and the archives are amazingly complete for such a big amount of time. The website for Earlham College, located in beautiful Philadelphia, has many listings online and available to the public. These listings are a bit on the old side, with dates starting in 1894 and going to 1912. The Bethlehem Times run their own online archive of obits that go back quite a ways. Check back to this site often as more and more listings are added on a regular basis.
The Butler Area Public Library has a stunning 100,000 listings online that you can view that cover the years 1818 all the way up to a few years ago; an impressive feat to say the least. One final spot you can check out is the Erie County Public Library website. They have listings from 1987 to the present.
Listed are indexes and databases designed to help users research Pennsylvania death notices.
Over one hundred thousand obituaries have been indexed by the Butler Area Public Library in order to make it easier for you to obtain a copy of the original clipping. Newspapers from the area submit their printings so that this organization, in conjunction with the Slippery Rock University's Computer Science department can maintain a paper and online index of the microfilm.
A printable request form for an obituary that was printed locally from 1822 onward can be found at the Erie County Public Library website. You can check in advance to see if the desired record is within the index, which is also available online. There is a fee for obtaining a copy of the original clipping, and you will be notified of the amount before receiving the results.
The obituary and marriage announcement database from the New Castle Public Library is extremely direct in its function. The index is available online so that you can enter the information that you know about the decedent in order to refine a query for the document. Once the record is located, a copy of the original clipping can be requested.
Below is a list of Pennsylvania newspaper obituaries to aid in genealogical research.
Located in Somerset, Pennsylvania, the Daily American serves its readers in print and online. On the website, obituaries are easily located thanks to the quick link at the top of the site, available on every page. Searchers can find previous days obituaries available on the left side of the obituary page.
The Daily Local News serves Chester county in Pennsylvania. This site makes it extremely easy for readers to access the recent obituaries by providing a quick link at the very top of the page which brings readers directly to the most recent obituaries, organized by date. Readers can even enter a name in the search engine to query the site.
The Gettysburg Times provides news and information for Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Those who are looking to access the obituaries for the Gettysburg Times can easily locate the information that they're looking for, as this newspaper has provided a quick link at the very top of the page which brings users directly to the more recent obituaries the newspaper has.
The largest newspaper by circulation in the City of Brotherly Love, the Philadelphia Inquirer keeps an online database of obituaries that is available to the public. Researchers have the option of searching by name, or can also browse records in their entirety. Unfortunately, online coverage is generally limited to records that are less than a year old, which means that historical researchers might not be satisfied.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sorts their obituaries in a somewhat interesting manner. Recent records, those from the last thirty days, are the first thing visitors find. However, researchers can also use a searchable database of all records dating back to early 2000, when the paper first started digitizing notices. Records before February 2000 aren't offered to the public through their website.
Among online obituary archives, few can compete with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. A very large number of records are available here, including those from the surrounding area. Furthermore, records extend back to 2001, and are fully searchable by first and last name, and by date of death or date of publication.
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