Montana Obituaries

Montana’s newspapers began in the 1864 gold rush. The Montana Historical Society offers free access to millions of digitized Montana newspaper pages, including papers from towns on or near reservations.

Recent Montana 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 Montana are:

• Billings Gazette
• Missoulian
• Great Falls Tribune
• Bozeman Daily Chronicle
• Helena Independent Record
• Montana Standard (Butte)

Legacy.com’s Montana 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.

Montana obituaries in historic newspapers

The Montana Post began in Virginia City in 1864, at the height of the gold rush, and later moved to Helena. Its notices recorded deaths in the mining camps, including deaths by accident, violence and vigilante hangings.

Helena, Butte and Missoula became the territory’s newspaper towns, and Butte’s copper mines drew Irish, Cornish, Finnish, Serbian and other immigrants whose deaths, often in mine accidents, filled the local papers. The 1917 Speculator Mine fire in Butte killed 168 men, and newspapers printed the lists of the dead.

The Montana Historical Society retired its earlier Montana Newspapers website and now offers its digitized papers through a free public access portal hosted by Newspapers.com, reached from the Society’s newspaper page, as well as through Chronicling America.

Where to find older Montana obituaries

Digitized Montana newspapers

• Digitized Montana Newspapers, Montana Historical Society — The starting point for the Society’s free public access portal and its Chronicling America titles.
• Montana newspapers on Chronicling America — Free Montana titles digitized by the Montana Historical Society.

Archives and libraries

• Montana Memory Project — Montana's digital library of historical records, photos and publications from libraries statewide.
• Montana Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Montana 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.

Montana death records

Montana has registered deaths statewide since 1907. DPHHS and county clerks issue certified copies to family and others with an interest. The Montana Historical Society Research Center has newspapers and other death sources.

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

Tips for finding an obituary in Montana

• Search mining-town papers. Butte, Anaconda and Helena papers covered mining deaths in detail.
• Use the county clerk. Montana county clerks and recorders also hold death records.
• Ask the Historical Society. The MHS Research Center in Helena holds most Montana papers on microfilm.
• 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