California’s first newspaper appeared in 1846, and the gold rush soon made San Francisco one of the country’s busiest newspaper cities. The free California Digital Newspaper Collection and the California Death Index are the two main starting points.
California obituaries in historic newspapers
The Californian was printed in Monterey in 1846, just after the United States took control, and moved to San Francisco the next year, where it reported the discovery of gold. During the gold rush, papers in San Francisco, Sacramento and the mining camps printed death notices for miners whose families were thousands of miles away, often with a line asking eastern papers to copy the notice.
California had one of the most diverse presses in the country. Spanish-language papers such as Los Angeles’ El Clamor Público (1855) served Californio families, and Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, Armenian and other immigrant papers recorded deaths in their communities. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed many city records, which makes newspapers especially important for deaths before then.
The California Digital Newspaper Collection, run by the University of California, Riverside, holds millions of free digitized pages from 1846 to the present. The California Death Index for 1940 to 1997 is free on FamilySearch.
Where to find California obituaries
Digitized California newspapers
- California Digital Newspaper Collection — Free digitized California newspapers from 1846 to the present.
Obituary and death indexes
- California Death Index, 1940–1997 (FamilySearch) — Free statewide index of California deaths, useful for finding the date and county to search.
Archives and libraries
- Genealogy, Los Angeles Public Library — LAPL’s genealogy research guide, including newspaper and obituary resources.
- San Francisco Public Library — San Francisco newspaper microfilm and history center.
- California Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to California newspaper archives, indexes and microfilm, with county-by-county links.
Nationwide newspaper archives
- Chronicling America, Library of Congress — Free digitized newspapers from every state. Narrow a search to California and the years you need.
- Google News Archive — Free scans of hundreds of older newspapers, browsable by title and date.
- Internet Archive newspapers — Free digitized newspapers and microfilm uploaded by libraries.
- FamilySearch — Free obituary indexes, death records and the Social Security Death Index (free account).
- Find a Grave — Volunteer-built cemetery memorials, many with transcribed obituaries.
- Newspapers.com — Large subscription archive of U.S. papers. Many public libraries offer free access.
- GenealogyBank — Subscription archive of historic newspapers and modern obituaries.
- Legacy.com — Obituaries published since about 2000 in most U.S. daily newspapers.
Tips for finding an obituary in California
- Pin down the date and place first. A death index or death certificate gives the exact date and county, and then you only need to search the local papers for the following week or two.
- Search more than one town. Obituaries often ran in the paper where the person was born or had lived before, not just where they died. Small-town weeklies sometimes published a notice weeks later.
- 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. See death notices vs. obituaries.
- Try every spelling. Search initials, nicknames and misspellings, and for married women in older papers, search the husband’s name (“Mrs. John Smith”). Digitized text often misreads old type.
- Ask a librarian. Many public libraries and state archives will look up an obituary for free or a small fee, and newspaper microfilm can often be borrowed through interlibrary loan.
Looking for death certificates and other official records? See our guide to California public records.