Idaho Obituaries

Idaho’s first newspaper appeared in 1862. The Idaho Digital Newspaper Project has made more than 80 historic Idaho papers free to search, and the Idaho State Archives keeps obituary indexes for early papers.

Recent Idaho 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 Idaho are:

• Idaho Statesman (Boise)
• Post Register (Idaho Falls)
• Idaho State Journal (Pocatello)
• Times-News (Twin Falls)
• Lewiston Tribune
• Coeur d'Alene Press

Legacy.com’s Idaho 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.

Idaho obituaries in historic newspapers

The Golden Age was printed in Lewiston in 1862, during the gold rush that led to Idaho Territory the next year. Boise’s Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman followed in 1864, and the Statesman remains the state’s best-known paper.

Mining camps in the Boise Basin, the Silver Valley and elsewhere supported short-lived papers that recorded mining deaths and accidents. Mormon settlement in southeastern Idaho and later irrigation projects on the Snake River Plain brought farm towns with their own weeklies.

The Idaho Digital Newspaper Project, a partnership of the Idaho State Archives with the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, covers papers from 1863 to 1925 on Chronicling America. The Idaho State Archives also keeps an index to obituaries in the Idaho Statesman and other early papers and will search for obituaries on request.

Where to find older Idaho obituaries

Digitized Idaho newspapers

• Idaho newspapers on Chronicling America — Free Idaho titles, 1863–1925, digitized by the Idaho Digital Newspaper Project.

Obituary and death indexes

• Searchable Catalogs, Idaho State Historical Society — The Idaho Digital Newspaper Project and other searchable indexes at the Idaho State Archives.

Archives and libraries

• Idaho State Historical Society — Idaho State Archives research services, including obituary lookups.
• Idaho Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Idaho 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.

Idaho death records

Idaho has registered deaths statewide since 1911. Certified copies go to family and others with a legal interest; death records older than 50 years are transferred to the Idaho State Archives, which can search them for you.

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

Tips for finding an obituary in Idaho

• Ask the State Archives. The Idaho State Archives will look up obituaries and death certificates over 50 years old.
• Search Spokane and Salt Lake papers. North Idaho families appear in Spokane papers; southeast Idaho families in Utah papers.
• Check Mormon records. In southeast Idaho, church records and the Deseret News often recorded deaths.
• 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