Georgia Historic Newspapers offers free access to papers dating back to 1763, and the Georgia Archives’ Virtual Vault adds death certificates. Together they cover most Georgia obituary searches.
Georgia obituaries in historic newspapers
The Georgia Gazette began in Savannah in 1763. Savannah and Augusta papers dominated the 1700s and early 1800s, and their notices covered deaths across the colony, including deaths from yellow fever and other epidemics.
As settlement moved west and north in the 1800s, county weeklies spread across the state. The Cherokee Phoenix, printed at New Echota from 1828 in English and Cherokee, is one of the most important Native American newspapers in the country. After the Civil War, Atlanta grew into the state’s newspaper center, and Black papers such as the Atlanta Daily World, founded in 1928, recorded deaths ignored by the white press.
Georgia Historic Newspapers, run by the Digital Library of Georgia at the University of Georgia, has digitized more than 1,000 titles. The Georgia Archives’ Virtual Vault includes Georgia death certificates from the early 1900s.
Where to find Georgia obituaries
Digitized Georgia newspapers
- Georgia Historic Newspapers — Free searchable Georgia newspapers from 1763 onward, from the Digital Library of Georgia.
Obituary and death indexes
- Virtual Vault, Georgia Archives — Free images of Georgia death certificates and other historic records.
Archives and libraries
- Research, Georgia Archives — Guides to Georgia vital records, newspapers and genealogy resources.
- Georgia Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Georgia 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 Georgia 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 Georgia
- 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.