New York Obituaries

New York has more digitized historic newspapers than almost any other state, including two free archives built for genealogists: NYS Historic Newspapers and Fultonhistory.com, with tens of millions of pages between them.

Recent New York 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 New York are:

• New York Times
• Newsday (Long Island)
• New York Daily News
• Times Union (Albany)
• Buffalo News
• Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester)
• The Post-Standard / Syracuse.com

Legacy.com’s New York 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.

New York obituaries in historic newspapers

William Bradford’s New-York Gazette began in 1725, and John Peter Zenger’s New-York Weekly Journal followed in 1733. By the 1830s New York City’s penny press, led by the Sun and the Herald, printed daily columns of death notices that families paid to place, a practice that spread across the country.

Upstate, nearly every village had a weekly paper that reported deaths in surrounding towns, often with more family detail than the city dailies. New York also had a vast foreign-language press, from the German New Yorker Staats-Zeitung (1834) to the Yiddish Forverts (1897) and Italian, Polish and Spanish dailies, which ran death notices for immigrants who never appear in English-language papers.

The New York Times has published death notices and obituaries since its founding in 1851, and its archive is one of the most searched for notable New Yorkers. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, published from 1841 to 1955, is free to search online through the Brooklyn Public Library.

Where to find older New York obituaries

Digitized New York newspapers

• NYS Historic Newspapers — Free digitized papers from every region of New York State, searchable by county and title.
• Fultonhistory.com (Old Fulton NY Post Cards) — A volunteer-built free archive of tens of millions of New York newspaper pages, strongest for upstate.
• Brooklyn Newspapers (Brooklyn Public Library) — Free access to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and other Brooklyn papers.

Obituary and death indexes

• New York State Death Index (NYS Archives) — The free NYS Death Index, 1880 onward (outside NYC), and how to order genealogy copies.
• NYC Historical Vital Records, NYC Municipal Archives — Free search and images of New York City death certificates before 1949.

Archives and libraries

• Milstein Division, New York Public Library — NYPL’s genealogy and local history division, with newspaper microfilm and obituary indexes.
• Genealogy, New York State Library — Guides to state death indexes and the library’s newspaper collection in Albany.
• NYC death certificates, NYC Health Department — How family members order New York City death certificates from 1949 to now.
• New York Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to New York 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.

New York death records

New York State (outside NYC) issues death certificates to family and others with a legal interest; genealogy copies are available for deaths 50 or more years ago. New York City deaths are recorded separately: the NYC Health Department issues recent certificates and the NYC Municipal Archives holds certificates before 1949. See also our guide to New York public records.

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

Tips for finding an obituary in New York

• NYC and the state are separate. NYC deaths are not in the NYS Death Index; use the Municipal Archives and NYC Health Department.
• Try Fultonhistory for upstate. Tens of millions of free pages of New York papers, strongest for upstate towns.
• Use the Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn Public Library offers the Brooklyn Daily Eagle free online.
• 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