Obituary Request

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

Obituary research service is not offered for years prior to 1930 in Hennepin or Ramsey county newspapers. This includes newspapers for the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul**

Turnaround: Research is usually completed and sent within 60 business days.

About This Research Service: 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.

**In larger cities, particularly Minneapolis and St. Paul, the older daily newspapers did not publish obituaries as they do today. If a death notice was printed, it was more often a notice of only the funeral, and usually no family information was provided. Due to this lack of detail and the frequent inability to locate any information of value for a paid search, no obituary research service will be offered before the year 1930 in Hennepin or Ramsey county newspapers. This includes newspapers for the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

If you are searching for a pre-1930 obituary from Hennepin County or Ramsey County, including the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the following options are available to you:

• Visit the Minnesota Historical Society Library
• Interlibrary loan
• Hire an independent contract researcher

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