South Dakota’s first newspaper was printed in 1859, before Dakota Territory was organized. The State Archives holds the state’s newspaper collection and indexes for birth, marriage and death notices in South Dakota papers.
South Dakota obituaries in historic newspapers
The Dakota Democrat began at Sioux Falls in 1859. The Black Hills gold rush of the 1870s brought papers to Deadwood and Rapid City, and their notices recorded deaths in the mining camps, including the 1876 killing of Wild Bill Hickok.
Railroads and homesteading filled eastern South Dakota with small towns in the 1880s, each with a weekly paper. German-Russian, Norwegian, Czech and Dutch communities published their own papers, and the Dakota-language mission paper Iapi Oaye served Dakota readers.
The South Dakota State Archives in Pierre holds a large collection of South Dakota newspapers on microfilm, along with a South Dakota death index and a newspaper surname index covering birth, marriage and death notices.
Where to find South Dakota obituaries
Archives and libraries
- State Archives, South Dakota State Historical Society — South Dakota newspapers, death indexes and genealogy research help.
- South Dakota Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to South Dakota 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 South Dakota 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 South Dakota
- 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.