Service is temporarily unavailable
Staff researchers are currently at capacity, and services are paused until August 1st. Please check back here at that time.
Obituary Request
Obituary Request
For this research service, Library Staff will search for one individual's obituary or death notice in up to two different newspapers.
$10.00
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:
- Visit the Minnesota Historical Society Library
- Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub (for many Minnesota newspapers more than 100 years old).
- Interlibrary loan of newspaper microfilm
- Hire an independent contract researcher
There is a separate research service for newspaper articles that are not obituaries. Request a newspaper article.
