Ohio has a statewide obituary index with millions of entries, the Ohio Obituary Index at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library. Paired with the digitized papers on Ohio Memory and Chronicling America, it makes Ohio one of the easiest states for obituary research.
Ohio obituaries in historic newspapers
The Centinel of the North-Western Territory, printed in Cincinnati in 1793, was the first newspaper in the Northwest Territory. Cincinnati became the region’s publishing center, with a large German-language press, including the Cincinnati Volksfreund and the Catholic Wahrheitsfreund, that reported deaths in German-speaking families for decades.
Every Ohio county seat supported weekly papers through the 1800s, and the industrial cities of Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus, Dayton, Akron and Youngstown added large dailies and Hungarian, Slovenian, Polish and other immigrant papers. Obituaries in Ohio weeklies often traced a family back to its arrival from Pennsylvania, Virginia or New England.
The Ohio Obituary Index began as an index to obituaries in Sandusky County papers and grew, with the help of libraries and volunteers across the state, into an index covering papers from most Ohio counties. Each entry tells you which paper and date to look up, so you can find the full obituary on microfilm or in a digitized archive.
Where to find Ohio obituaries
Digitized Ohio newspapers
- Ohio Memory — Digitized Ohio newspapers and records from the Ohio History Connection and the State Library of Ohio.
Obituary and death indexes
- Ohio Obituary Index, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library — Millions of index entries for obituaries in Ohio newspapers, from libraries statewide.
Archives and libraries
- Ohio Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Ohio 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 Ohio 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 Ohio
- 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 Ohio public records.