Pennsylvania papers have reported deaths since 1719, in English and, for much of the state’s history, in German. The State Library of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania State Archives are the two main free starting points.
Pennsylvania obituaries in historic newspapers
Andrew Bradford’s American Weekly Mercury began in Philadelphia in 1719, and Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette soon followed. Christopher Sower’s German-language paper, begun in Germantown in 1739, started a German press that lasted into the 1900s across southeastern and central Pennsylvania. For Pennsylvania German families, those papers often carry the only printed record of a death.
Through the 1800s every county seat supported several weekly papers, usually aligned with a political party, and each reported local deaths. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the coal and steel towns added daily papers and large foreign-language presses serving Slovak, Polish, Italian, Hungarian and other communities.
Statewide death registration began in 1906. The Pennsylvania State Archives offers free online indexes to state death certificates, and records older than 50 years are open to the public, which makes it easier to pair an obituary with its death certificate.
Where to find Pennsylvania obituaries
Digitized Pennsylvania newspapers
- Pennsylvania Newspapers, State Library of Pennsylvania — Digitized Pennsylvania newspapers and the state library’s newspaper collections.
Obituary and death indexes
- Research Online, Pennsylvania State Archives — Free online indexes to Pennsylvania death certificates and other genealogy records.
Archives and libraries
- Free Library of Philadelphia — Philadelphia newspaper microfilm and databases, with research help for obituary searches.
- Pennsylvania Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania
- 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.