Wisconsin Obituaries - FamilySearch Historical Records

What Is in the Collection?
The collection consists of an index and images of obituaries from various newspapers in Wisconsin housed at the Wisconsin State Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin. The collection covers the following years: 1846-1948, 1954-1958, and 1961-1968.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
Each Obituary is different. Information found in this collection may include:


 * Name of deceased
 * Birth date and place
 * Death date and place
 * Names of parents
 * Name of spouse
 * Names of children
 * Name of cemetery
 * Name of newspaper
 * Date of obituary publication

How Do I Search the Collection?
You can search the index or view the images or both. To begin your search, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor
 * The location or date of the event

View the Images
View images in this collection by visiting the /waypoints Browse Page.
 * 1) Select Surname Range

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images.

I Found Who I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the information to locate the actual death record.
 * Use the age listed to determine an approximate birth date to find other church and vital records such as birth, baptism and marriage records. Also search for immigration, military, land and probate records.
 * Use the information to find additional family members in censuses.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.
 * Church Records often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.

I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * Try viewing the original record. Indexes and transcriptions may not include all the data found in the original records. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * If your ancestor does not have a common name, collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you identify possible relatives that can be verified by records.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality in an area search.
 * Try variant spellings of your ancestor’s name.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Search the indexes and records of Wisconsin, United States Genealogy.
 * Search in the FamilySearch Library Catalog

Citing This Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image. Collection Citation: Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image Citation:

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