United States Obituary Index from OldNews.com

261,476,278 records

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United States Obituary Index from OldNews.com

United States Obituary Index from OldNews.com

261,476,278 records

This collection contains obituary records extracted from newspapers published in the United States from <a href="https://www.oldnews.com/en" target="blank">OldNews.com</a>. Records typically include the name of the deceased, date and place of birth, death, funeral, and burial, age at death, relatives of the deceased, the date and place the obituary was published, the name of the newspaper where the original obituary was published, and the snippet of text from the newspaper mentioning the obituary. Some records may also include information such as the residence of the deceased, occupation, and cause of death. During the majority of the 19th century, numerous obituaries found in American newspapers were essentially written replicas of tombstone inscriptions, primarily consisting of names, birthdates, and death dates. During the American Civil War, obituaries expanded to provide additional biographical information about fallen soldiers in order to reach as many relatives as possible. In the late 1900s, amid the Industrial Revolution, obituaries began to include details such as the deceased's financial standing, occupation, and years of employment. Local newspaper obituaries frequently provide information regarding funeral and burial arrangements for the deceased. A standardized obituary template was established by funeral homes and newspapers in the 1930s. This template typically consisted of four parts: a death announcement, a brief biography with a list of survivors, and funeral details. The records in this collection were extracted using machine learning technology and may contain mistakes due to Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology and the automatic extraction. Users are encouraged to fix such mistakes using the “Suggest an alternative” feature that is found on every record page. Images for these newspapers can be viewed on <a href="https://www.oldnews.com/en" target="blank">OldNews.com</a>.

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Sample record

Eleanor RooseveltDied: Nov 7 1962 - New York, United States

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms as president, making her the longest-serving first lady of the United States. Through her travels, public engagement, and advocacy, she largely redefined the role of first lady.