Wyoming Obituaries

The Genealogy Archive in the Niobrara County Library is the place to look for Wyoming death notices if you are seeking to obtain a copy of an obituary that was printed among any of several sources within the area. The files are organized alphabetically by last name on the site where you will be able to read a transcription of the original clippings.

Although very often a lot of information is useful for genealogical researches, for those simply reading the obituary section for details regarding services or next of kin, a lot of tabs and a whole life story to flip through can be overwhelming. In the interests of simplicity and ease, the Casper, Wyoming Journal keeps death notices short but informative, so it is possible to fit the entire day's deceased listing in one convenient place.

In rural areas, it can sometimes be difficult to determine exactly what paper a death notice will be posted in. Perhaps recognizing this, the Casper Star-Tribune out of Wyoming lists not only the immediate area's recently deceased, but also assorted obituaries from around the state. Even if the person you are looking for did not die in city, chances are with a little research you can still find their death notice.

Obituary pages, even for smaller papers, are often very standard looking and impersonal. In an attempt to capture an image of the recently deceased in a more lively state, thumbnail tabs as well as a picture of the deceased are posted directly to the website. By clicking on the person's name or photo you can read the full story, often including more images.

Even when you know just where to look, accessing obituaries online can sometimes be a real hassle. This is one of the bonuses of smaller papers, however, because with fewer death notices to post, such news sources can often take the space to list the names of the deceased for that day. The Laramie, WY Boomerang does this not only for the day's obituaries, but also those for the entire week.

As convenient as online death notices pages are, very frequently they only contain those published for the month, day, or sometimes even week. Though a few papers have archives stretching back almost a year, the Sheridan Press in Wyoming is a goldmine for researches, with obituaries dating back since the beginning of the decade.

Any thorough genealogical search is likely to lead to at least one unexpected location, such as a small paper associated with larger rural areas. A useful example, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, may only feature a few death notices a day, but presents them in an organized manner that is easy for just about anyone to use, from mourners to researchers to simple interested readers.