Free death records for genealogist

Finding your ancestor's death record is an important part of your genealogical research.

The following websites will help get you started with their large collection of free death records.

Check back often. I will post more sites I consider invaluable.

Search death records at Rootsweb

The granddaddy of webistes, rootsweb.com offers a cemetery database containing containing an amazing 925703 records. Remember to try various spellings of your surname. In case you have a very common surname, you can narrow our search by state.

Rootsweb Cemeteries Database

ObitFinder death records search

The ObitFinder™ database contains obituaries from over 500 U.S., Canadian & U.K. newspapers. The glitch? Obituaries only date back to 2001. However, this site is still worth checking out. Obituaries.com

Find A Grave's free death records search

Findagrave.com is an amazing site that has indexed over 21 million graves! Many of the listing include photographs of the actual tombstone. Find A Grave database

Social Security Death Index (SSDI)

Every genealogist should check out this invaluable resource. This massive index contains over 80,881,083 records. Social Security Death Index database And don't forget to check out my guide to Social Security death records. Social Security Death records guide

Death Records Terminology

Sometimes you'll discover that your ancestor died from what appears to be a mysterious disease. Check my webpage on common ailments from ague to yellow fever.

Death Records Dictionary Return to Home Page from Free Death Records