Illinois Obituaries

Illinois offers two free statewide death indexes from the Illinois State Archives, plus the University of Illinois’ digitized newspaper collection. Together they make it possible to find a death and then the obituary that reported it.

Recent Illinois 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 Illinois are:

• Chicago Tribune
• Chicago Sun-Times
• Daily Herald (Arlington Heights)
• Peoria Journal Star
• State Journal-Register (Springfield)
• Rockford Register Star
• Belleville News-Democrat

Legacy.com’s Illinois 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.

Illinois obituaries in historic newspapers

The Illinois Herald was printed at Kaskaskia, the territorial capital, in 1814. Downstate papers in Vandalia, Springfield, Alton and Galena reported deaths through the early statehood period, often in short notices with the person’s age and place of origin.

Chicago grew from a frontier town into the country’s second-largest city in the late 1800s, with one of the world’s largest foreign-language presses: German, Polish, Swedish, Czech, Norwegian, Italian, Lithuanian and many more. The Chicago Defender, founded in 1905, became the most influential Black newspaper in the country and printed obituaries for families who had moved north during the Great Migration.

The Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections at the University of Illinois hosts free digitized papers from across the state. The Illinois State Archives’ Pre-1916 Statewide Death Index is built from county death registers, and its index to Illinois death certificates begins in 1916.

Where to find older Illinois obituaries

Digitized Illinois newspapers

• Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections, University of Illinois — Free digitized Illinois newspapers, from small-town weeklies to student papers.

Obituary and death indexes

• Illinois Statewide Death Index, Pre-1916 — Free index to county death records before statewide registration began.
• Illinois Death Certificates index, from 1916 — Free index to Illinois death certificates filed with the Department of Public Health.

Archives and libraries

• Chicago Public Library — Chicago newspaper databases and microfilm, including the Chicago Defender and Chicago Tribune.
• Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) — Regional archives holding county records, including pre-1916 death records you can order copies of.
• Illinois Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Illinois 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.

Illinois death records

Illinois death certificates are restricted to family and others with an interest; genealogical copies of deaths more than 20 years ago are available from IDPH or the county clerk. Pre-1916 county death records can be ordered through the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) system.

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

Tips for finding an obituary in Illinois

• Use the two state indexes. The pre-1916 index covers county death records; the IDPH index covers state death certificates from 1916.
• Chicago papers ran thousands of notices. Paid death notices in the Tribune and Sun-Times are shorter than obituaries but list family members.
• Check foreign-language papers. Chicago had Polish, German, Czech and other papers that reported community 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