Michigan Obituaries

Michigan’s newspapers go back to 1809 in Detroit. The free Digital Michigan Newspapers site, the Library of Michigan’s newspaper guides and a large FamilySearch collection of Michigan obituaries are the main places to start.

Recent Michigan 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 Michigan are:

• Detroit Free Press
• Detroit News
• MLive (Grand Rapids Press, Flint Journal, Kalamazoo Gazette and more)
• Lansing State Journal
• Traverse City Record-Eagle
• Oakland Press

Legacy.com’s Michigan 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.

Michigan obituaries in historic newspapers

The Michigan Essay, printed in Detroit in 1809, was the territory’s first newspaper, though only a single issue is known to survive. The Detroit Gazette, begun in 1817 with a French-language section, was the first lasting paper. As settlement spread in the 1830s and 1840s, county seats founded weeklies that recorded local deaths.

Lumber, copper and iron mining brought immigrants to the Upper Peninsula and the north woods, and their papers reported mining and logging accidents. Dutch settlers around Holland published De Grondwet, Finnish communities in the Upper Peninsula had their own papers, and Detroit’s auto boom brought a large Polish, Black and Southern population whose newspapers recorded their deaths.

Digital Michigan Newspapers, hosted by Central Michigan University’s Clarke Historical Library, offers free digitized papers from across the state. FamilySearch’s Michigan obituary collection, covering 1820 to 2006, indexes obituary files kept by libraries around the state.

Where to find older Michigan obituaries

Digitized Michigan newspapers

• Digital Michigan Newspapers — Free digitized Michigan newspapers from the Clarke Historical Library.

Obituary and death indexes

• Michigan, Obituaries, 1820–2006 (FamilySearch) — Free index and images of obituary collections kept by Michigan libraries.
• Death records, Michiganology (Archives of Michigan) — Free images of Michigan death certificates from 1897 to about 1952, searchable by name.

Archives and libraries

• Newspaper Resources, Library of Michigan — The state library’s guide to Michigan newspaper holdings, databases and local obituary indexes.
• Michigan Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Michigan 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.

Michigan death records

Michigan death records are public: anyone can order a copy from MDHHS or the county clerk. Michiganology, from the Archives of Michigan, has free images of state death certificates from 1897 to about 1952.

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

Tips for finding an obituary in Michigan

• Start with Michiganology. Free state death certificates give the date, place and burial.
• Check MLive. Several Michigan dailies share one obituary section on MLive.
• Search the FamilySearch obituary collection. Michigan libraries' obituary files, 1820–2006, are indexed free.
• 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