Utah Obituaries

United States Utah  Utah Obituaries

Overview
Obituaries are a good source of biographical information. They can include religion, education, and accomplishments, as well as birth, marriage, and death information, names of parents, siblings, children, and extended family.

For information on national newspaper sources for obituaries see United States Obituaries.

Indexes for Utah
There are a few indexes to obituaries for Utah newspapers in the Family History Library. Some newspapers have indexes on-line through the Internet. Utah Newspapers describes available newspaper resources.

There is a combined obituary index for the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune covering 1850 to 1970. This index also includes names from other early publications of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that recorded deaths. It is alphabetical by name of the deceased. The cards give the birth year of the deceased, the date and page of the obituary, and the newspaper(s) in which the obituary appears. It is in:
 * Obituary Index File to The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News as of 31 December 1970. Salt Lake City, Utah: Church Historians Office, 1971. (Family History Library .) This index is also available at the Salt Lake Public Library, the Church History Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Utah State Historical Society.

A similar index is available for the Ogden Standard Examiner in:


 * Ogden Branch Genealogical Library. Obituary Index to Ogden Standard Examiner, 1888 to 1910. Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1974. (Family History Library .)

Brigham Young University provides the on-line Utah County Obituary Index. The index covers from the 1870s to the present.

Local genealogical and historical societies and public libraries maintain clip files of obituaries. Some individuals keep scrapbooks of obituaries and then donate them to the Family History Library. To find other indexes or obituary clippings from the newspapers, do a Place-name search (state, county, and town levels) of the FamilySearch Catalog and select the topic Obituaries.

If you find a reference to an obituary, look at Utah Newspapers for information on obtaining a copy the newspaper. Also, you may want to search the newspaper for the time of death.

Early Utah Digital Newspapers
To search for old obituaries you may find the Utah Digital Newspaper Project helpful. This free online source currently has searchable newspapers from 1857 to the present depending on the newspaper.

Tips
See United States Newspapers for great tips.

County Level Obituary Pages for the State of Utah
Check the county pages for further sources in each of the counties. Examples:


 * Utah county, Utah Wiki Page - obituary section
 * someday when a county page has an "overflow" obituary section and creates a separate breakout page specificly for "Obituaries of X county"...then add link here as example