Colorado’s newspapers began with the 1859 gold rush. The free Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection and the Denver Public Library’s obituary indexes, the largest in the state, cover most Colorado obituary searches.
Colorado obituaries in historic newspapers
William Byers printed the first Rocky Mountain News in Denver in April 1859, and it ran until 2009. Mining camps such as Central City, Leadville, Silverton and Cripple Creek supported their own papers, which reported mining accidents and the deaths of prospectors whose families back east sometimes learned of them only from a reprinted notice.
Denver grew into the region’s newspaper capital, with the Denver Post founded in 1892. Spanish-language papers in the San Luis Valley and southern Colorado, and German, Italian and Slavic papers in mining and smelting towns, record communities often missing from the English-language press.
The Denver Public Library’s Western History and Genealogy department keeps the Denver Obituary Project, the largest obituary index in the state, and houses the Colorado Obituary Project, about 50,000 non-Denver obituaries indexed by the Colorado Genealogical Society, mostly from the 1970s to 1990.
Where to find Colorado obituaries
Digitized Colorado newspapers
- Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection — Free digitized Colorado newspapers from the Colorado State Library.
Obituary and death indexes
- Denver Obituary Project, Denver Public Library — The largest obituary index in Colorado, for Denver papers.
- Colorado Obituary Project — Index to about 50,000 obituaries from outside Denver.
Archives and libraries
- Obituaries, Cemeteries & the Dead, Denver Public Library — DPL’s guide to all of its obituary and death-record resources.
- Colorado Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Colorado 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 Colorado 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 Colorado
- 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.