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Obituary Request

Obituary Request

Before you order

The Minnesota Historical Society has created a digital archive of newspapers from around Minnesota: the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub. Many of the older newspapers on the Hub are available to view and search from home. We recommend that you start there when looking for obituaries from 100 years or more ago.

New: the digital St. Paul Pioneer Press collection from 1861-1961 is available here!

MNHS also offers an Interlibrary Loan service. Minnesota newspapers archived on microfilm can be sent out to local public and university libraries. More information on this service can be found here.

About this service
Staff will search in up to two newspapers in or closest to the location specified. The search includes up to 7 issues of a daily paper or 4 issues of a weekly paper.

Obituaries are not indexed, so providing accurate location and date information is very important. If the death occurred in Minnesota between 1907 and 2001, you can find the exact date in the Minnesota People Record Search Death Certificate Index.



Location for Obituary Search

Obituaries were usually published in a person's hometown newspaper or in the newspaper for the community closest to where they lived, which is not necessarily the same as the place where they died. Staff will search in the newspapers in or closest to the location specified.

For this research service, Library Staff will search for one individual's obituary or death notice in up to two different newspapers.

Price
$10.00

Digital delivery via email and scanning fees are included in the price
MNHS Members receive 10% discount at checkout

Processing fee
The price of this service includes a non-refundable processing fee of $5. This is not an additional charge; however, if your order is cancelled for any reason, the Minnesota Historical Society will retain that fee.

Turnaround time
Research is usually completed and sent within three to four weeks. In some circumstances, it may take up to twelve weeks to complete work.

About this research service 
Staff will search in up to two newspapers in or closest to the location specified. The search includes up to 7 issues of a daily paper or 4 issues of a weekly paper.

Obituaries are not indexed, so providing accurate location and date information is very important. Obituaries were usually published in a person's hometown newspaper or in the newspaper for the community closest to where they lived, which is not necessarily the same as the place where they died. Staff will search in the newspapers in or closest to the location specified. If the death occurred in Minnesota between 1907 and 2001, you can find the exact date in our Death Certificate Index.

Other options for locating an obituary include:

There is a separate research service for newspaper articles that are not obituaries. Request a newspaper article.

 

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