Arizona Obituaries

Arizona’s first newspaper was printed in 1859 in Tubac. The Arizona Digital Newspaper Program and the state’s free birth and death certificate site are the two main resources for Arizona obituary research.

Recent Arizona obituaries (2000 to today)

Most obituaries published since about 2000 are online. Daily papers post paid death notices and family-written obituaries in an Obituaries section, usually hosted by Legacy.com, and keep them online with a guest book. The largest daily papers in Arizona are:

• Arizona Republic (Phoenix)
• Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)
• East Valley Tribune
• Yuma Sun
• Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff)

Legacy.com’s Arizona page searches the obituaries of most of these papers and many smaller ones at once. Funeral homes also post obituaries on their own websites, often before the newspaper does and sometimes instead of it: search the person’s name with the town and “obituary” or “funeral home.” For obituaries no longer online, ask your public or state library: many offer NewsBank or ProQuest databases with the full text of recent newspapers, free with a library card.

Arizona obituaries in historic newspapers

The Weekly Arizonian began in Tubac in 1859, when the region was part of New Mexico Territory. Papers in Prescott, Tucson and later Phoenix reported deaths on the frontier, in mining camps and in conflicts during the Apache wars.

Mining towns such as Tombstone, Bisbee, Jerome and Globe supported lively papers, including Tombstone’s Epitaph, which reported the gunfight near the O.K. Corral in 1881. Spanish-language papers in Tucson, such as El Fronterizo, served Mexican American communities and are important for families on both sides of the border.

The Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records runs the Arizona Digital Newspaper Program, which hosts digitized Arizona papers on the Arizona Memory Project. The state’s Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates site offers free images of older Arizona death certificates.

Where to find older Arizona obituaries

Digitized Arizona newspapers

• Arizona Memory Project — Free digitized Arizona newspapers and historical records.
• Arizona Newspapers, Arizona State Library — Guide to the state library’s digitized and microfilmed Arizona newspapers.

Obituary and death indexes

• Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates (ADHS) — Free search and images of Arizona death certificates from 1870 through deaths at least 50 years ago.

Archives and libraries

• Arizona Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Arizona newspaper archives, indexes and microfilm, with local links.

Also search the nationwide archives: Chronicling America, FamilySearch, Find a Grave, Newspapers.com. See all nationwide obituary resources.

Arizona death records

Arizona releases death certificates to the public 50 years after the death, and ADHS posts them free in its genealogy search. For later deaths, certified copies go to family and others with a legal interest from ADHS or a county vital records office.

• Arizona Bureau of Vital Records (ADHS) — the office that issues Arizona death certificates, with ordering instructions and fees.
• Where to Write for Vital Records: Arizona — the CDC’s summary of where to order, current fees and which years the office holds.
• Arizona Vital Records, FamilySearch Research Wiki — free death indexes and certificate collections, with the years each covers.

Tips for finding an obituary in Arizona

• Get the certificate first. Arizona's free death certificate images give the exact date, place and funeral home, which tells you which paper to search.
• Look for winter residents. Many people who died in Arizona were seasonal residents, so the main obituary may be in their home state's paper.
• Search Spanish-language papers. Tucson's El Fronterizo and other Spanish-language papers carried notices for Mexican American families.
• Look beyond the word “obituary.” Older papers reported deaths under headings like “Died,” “Deaths,” local news and personals columns, funeral notices and cards of thanks, and often listed married women under the husband’s name (“Mrs. John Smith”). See death notices vs. obituaries.

Common questions