Colorado Obituaries

Colorado’s newspapers began with the 1859 gold rush. The free Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection and the Denver Public Library’s obituary indexes, the largest in the state, cover most Colorado obituary searches.

Recent Colorado 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 Colorado are:

• Denver Post
• The Gazette (Colorado Springs)
• Daily Camera (Boulder)
• Coloradoan (Fort Collins)
• Pueblo Chieftain
• Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction)

Legacy.com’s Colorado 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.

Colorado obituaries in historic newspapers

William Byers printed the first Rocky Mountain News in Denver in April 1859, and it ran until 2009. Mining camps such as Central City, Leadville, Silverton and Cripple Creek supported their own papers, which reported mining accidents and the deaths of prospectors whose families back east sometimes learned of them only from a reprinted notice.

Denver grew into the region’s newspaper capital, with the Denver Post founded in 1892. Spanish-language papers in the San Luis Valley and southern Colorado, and German, Italian and Slavic papers in mining and smelting towns, record communities often missing from the English-language press.

The Denver Public Library’s Western History and Genealogy department keeps the Denver Obituary Project, the largest obituary index in the state, and houses the Colorado Obituary Project, about 50,000 non-Denver obituaries indexed by the Colorado Genealogical Society, mostly from the 1970s to 1990.

Where to find older Colorado obituaries

Digitized Colorado newspapers

• Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection — Free digitized Colorado newspapers from the Colorado State Library.
• Plains to Peaks Historic Newspapers — One search across the Colorado and Wyoming historic newspaper collections.

Obituary and death indexes

• Denver Obituary Project, Denver Public Library — The largest obituary index in Colorado, for Denver papers.
• Colorado Obituary Project — Index to about 50,000 obituaries from outside Denver.

Archives and libraries

• Obituaries, Cemeteries & the Dead, Denver Public Library — DPL’s guide to all of its obituary and death-record resources.
• Colorado Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Colorado 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.

Colorado death records

Colorado death certificates are restricted to family and others with a direct interest for 50 years; older records are held by the Colorado State Archives. Order recent certificates from CDPHE or a county vital records office.

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

Tips for finding an obituary in Colorado

• Search both Denver indexes. The Denver Obituary Project covers Denver papers; the Colorado Obituary Project covers the rest of the state.
• Try mining-town papers. Leadville, Cripple Creek and other boomtowns had their own dailies, and many are in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.
• Check Plains to Peaks. It searches Colorado and Wyoming papers together, useful for families near the border.
• 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