British Columbia Obituaries

Obituaries are usually newspaper articles published after or near the time of a person’s death. They may include biographical information such as a person’s date and place of birth, dates of immigration, marriage dates, community service, and names and locations of surviving relatives. Short death or funeral notices from the family or on behalf of a lodge or other organization of which the deceased was a member may also have been published, or the basic facts, usually death date and place, may have been published in a local vital statisitcs column. Longer obituaries for pioneers and prominent people are often found in local newspapers published with local news. If you know the approximate death or burial date of your ancestor, search the entire newspaper around those dates.

Following a death or burial date you may also find letters or notices of thanks from the family, and legal notices of estate matters or property auctions.

The British Columbia Genealogical Society, local genealogical and historical societies, many public libraries and archives, and some newspaper publishers, and some funeral providers in British Columbia maintain clipping files or online copies of obituaries. Obituaries, or abstracts of published obituaries, may also be found in various published sources, such as genealogical, professional and community periodicals.

See also British Columbia "Newspapers","Periodicals", and "Vital Records".