Obituaries for Michigan 1820-2006



Locating ancestors’ obituaries is very important to your family research. When it was acceptable to write and have published long obituaries, the information provided can be wonderful. However, note, you could have an ancestor listed in someone else’ obituary as a relative. There could be a tie-in you did not know about.

Using the FamilySearch.org database of Obituaries for Michigan covering 1820 to 2006 is a great resource if an ancestor was in Michigan or those who lived in any bordering state. There is approximately 1.1 million with scanned images of the obituary or just an index of information. Sometimes the the obituary is transcribed if the newspaper is not clear enough. Many times obituaries were also sent and printed in a person’s hometown or home county even if they had lived and died in another state miles away. You may have thought you great uncle only lived in Nebraska yet as it turns out he was born and raised in Michigan, so the family did have an obituary for print in Michigan.

Just placing a surname, especially if is an unusual surname just might produce some result unexpected. The surname could be a female’s maiden name and so placed also in the obituary. If you had not found that maiden name, now it there with the obituary.

Some additional info in an obituary can be where the ancestor was raised, parents’ names, occupation, who and when they married, their children and what disease or illness they died of.  FamilySearch.org is the place to search.

Photos: Obit for Arthur M. Root in Nov. 1936; transcription for Amanda Johnson Wixom in 1894; and full details about James B. Wilson in 1886.

Related FamilyTree Blogs:

Info in an Obit

Funeral Traditions

Locating Obituaries

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