Texas Obituaries

Texas newspapers date to the Spanish colonial period and the Texas Revolution. The Portal to Texas History hosts millions of free digitized Texas newspaper pages, making it the best first stop for a Texas obituary.

Recent Texas 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 Texas are:

• Houston Chronicle
• Dallas Morning News
• San Antonio Express-News
• Austin American-Statesman
• Fort Worth Star-Telegram
• El Paso Times
• Corpus Christi Caller-Times

Legacy.com’s Texas 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.

Texas obituaries in historic newspapers

A Spanish-language Gaceta de Texas was printed briefly in 1813, and the Telegraph and Texas Register, founded in 1835, reported on the Texas Revolution and the deaths at the Alamo and Goliad. Through the Republic and early statehood, papers in Galveston, Houston, San Antonio and Austin covered deaths across the frontier.

German immigrants in the Hill Country founded papers such as the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung in 1852, and Czech, Polish and Spanish-language papers served their communities into the 1900s. Black newspapers in Houston, Dallas and Galveston recorded deaths in African American communities. Galveston papers documented the 1900 hurricane, the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

The Texas Digital Newspaper Program, run by the University of North Texas Libraries through the Portal to Texas History, works with libraries and publishers across the state to digitize and freely host local papers, including many 20th-century weeklies.

Where to find older Texas obituaries

Digitized Texas newspapers

• Texas Digital Newspaper Program, Portal to Texas History — Millions of free digitized pages of Texas newspapers from every region.

Obituary and death indexes

• Texas Deaths, 1890–1976 (FamilySearch) — Free index and images of Texas death certificates.

Archives and libraries

• Genealogy Resources, Texas State Library and Archives — Texas death indexes, newspaper microfilm and research guides.
• Order records locally (Texas county clerks) — DSHS list of local offices that issue Texas death certificates.
• Texas Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Texas 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.

Texas death records

Texas death certificates are restricted to family and others with an interest for 25 years, then open to anyone. Order from DSHS Vital Statistics or the county clerk where the death happened; the Texas State Library has death indexes and microfilm. See also our guide to Texas public records.

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

Tips for finding an obituary in Texas

• Start with the free certificates. Texas death certificates from 1890 to 1976 are indexed with images on FamilySearch.
• Search the Portal first. The Portal to Texas History has small-town papers from every region.
• Check Spanish, German and Czech papers. Community papers recorded deaths that English dailies missed.
• 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