Utah’s first newspaper, the Deseret News, began in 1850 and is still published. Utah Digital Newspapers, from the University of Utah, has digitized papers from all 29 counties and is free to use.
Utah obituaries in historic newspapers
The Deseret News was founded in Salt Lake City in 1850 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It and the Salt Lake Tribune, founded in 1871, became the state’s main papers and printed death notices from settlements throughout the territory.
Utah obituaries are often unusually detailed. They frequently record a person’s birthplace, the year they crossed the plains, the pioneer company they traveled with, and their church callings, which makes them valuable for tracing pioneer families. Mining towns such as Park City, Eureka and Bingham Canyon had their own papers, along with immigrant communities from Scandinavia, Greece, Italy and elsewhere.
Utah Digital Newspapers, built by the J. Willard Marriott Library, holds millions of pages and requires no fees or subscription. The Utah State Archives offers free name indexes, including death certificates.
Where to find Utah obituaries
Digitized Utah newspapers
- Utah Digital Newspapers — Free digitized Utah newspapers from every county.
Obituary and death indexes
- Name Indexes, Utah State Archives — Free indexes including Utah death certificates and other records.
Archives and libraries
- Utah Newspapers, FamilySearch Research Wiki — Volunteer-maintained guide to Utah 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 Utah 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 Utah
- 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.