Michigan Obituaries

Obituaries may provide information such as the age of the deceased, birth date and place, names of living relatives and their residences, maiden name, occupation, death date, cause of death, and place of burial. Deceased family members are frequently mentioned. Obituaries may also mention previous places of residence, immigration information, religion, and any social organizations or activities in which the deceased was involved.

Generally, the first step to obtaining an obituary is to find the death date of the person so that the obituary can be more easily found in a newspaper. Death dates may be obtained from the Statewide death index, or cemeteries in the local area where the person is believed to have died. Once a death date is known, the local library in the area may be contacted to learn whether or not they have newspapers for the time period needed, and if someone is willing to look for an obituary in that newspaper. If the newspapers are not held at the library, the local newspaper office may also be contacted to learn where older editions of the newspaper are kept. Some libraries and even newspaper publishers keep obituary files.

Online Resources

 * 1820-2006 at FamilySearch  - How to Use this Collection; index and images
 * Online Michigan Death Records &amp; Indexes, links by county
 * Obits Archive Michigan
 * Obituaries Help Michigan
 * Michigan Obituaries
 * Web: Southwest Michigan, Obituary Index, 1875-2012, index($)
 * 1980-2014 at FamilySearch  - How to Use this Collection; index and images
 * Michigan Online Historical Newspapers
 * Michigan Newspapers ($)
 * Northern Michigan, Newspaper Surname Index, index/images
 * Chronicling America
 * Michigan Newspaper Archives (1817 - 1995) at Genealogy Bank
 * Michigan Newspapers
 * Digital Michigan Newspaper Portal