Washington D.C. Obituaries

Washington D.C. death notices have been recorded since the 1800s. From the Post, they have been indexed from 1971 to the present day, while the Star has records from 1906 to 1960. Clippings can be requested directly from the newspapers for local residents, or national requests can be made to the libraries in the District.

Though big urban area newspapers are one of the major sources of obituaries, many of their websites offer anything but simple search features. The Washington, D.C. City Paper recognizes the importance of any death notices page to researches and family members of the deceased alike, offering multiple ways to search, as well as a convenient scroll through feature.

It can be very frustrating when newspapers with national circulation like the Washington Post make sections important to genealogical research such as the obituaries difficult to access, search, or post. Luckily, this periodical's website contains multiple search features as well as a thumbnail tab for each death notice published that day. For those interested in posting information, it is possible to submit by email as well as via social networking sites like Twitter.

One of the most frustrating things about searching for obituaries is that so often they contain little information besides the person's name and dates of birth and death. For those doing any kind of research, this can really pose a problem. The famed Washington Times newspaper is an exception, creating detailed page-long death notices for the recently deceased on this metropolitan area.