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Search Virginia Obituaries
Look up obituaries, death records and people by name.
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Obituary guide
How to find an obituary in Virginia
For a recent death, start with the funeral home's website and the local paper's obituary page. For an older obituary, try the Library of Virginia in Richmond. Its Virginia Chronicle site holds millions of digitized newspaper pages, and the Henley index covers marriage and obituary notices from 1736 to 1982.
What to have ready
- Full name, including a maiden name or nickname
- Approximate date and place of death (city or county)
- Age at death or birth year
- Names of close relatives (spouse, children, parents)
Tip: Knowing the county or independent city narrows the search more than anything else., because it tells you which local paper and which library to check.
Where to look, by when the person died
| When the person died | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Last few years | Funeral home websites; newspaper obituary pages (listed below); Legacy.com's Virginia page |
| 1990s to recent decades | Newspaper databases at your public library, which you can use with a library card; the Library of Virginia's newspaper guide for which papers are digitized |
| Older or historic | Virginia Chronicle (Library of Virginia); the Henley marriage and obituary index; Chronicling America; microfilm at the Library of Virginia; county historical and genealogical societies |
| Official death record | Statewide records began in 1853. Births and deaths weren't recorded from 1897 to 1911, and recording resumed in 1912. See how to order a Virginia death record. |
Major newspapers' obituary pages
- Richmond Times-Dispatch
- The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk)
- The Roanoke Times
- Daily Press (Newport News)
- The Daily Progress (Charlottesville), on Legacy.com
- The Washington Post, for Northern Virginia
Each page loaded without a login on our check. Older news archives usually need a subscription or a library card.
Libraries and archives
- Library of Virginia: newspaper research: directories showing which dates exist on microfilm, in print or on Virginia Chronicle
- Henley index: notices from more than 150 Richmond-area and Virginia newspapers, mostly 1780–1910
- Library of Virginia: genealogy: birth, marriage and death records from 1853 on
Timeline expectations
- Recent obituaries appear when the family or funeral home publishes them, so timing varies.
- Virginia Chronicle: coverage runs from the 18th to the 21st century, depending on the paper.
- State death records are public after 25 years. For 1897–1911, check newspapers and church records instead.
Tips
- Each Henley entry has the full text or an abstract, plus the paper, date, page and column. Months may be abbreviated, and the year is often left out of the text.
- Most microfilm isn't indexed, so get the date of death first.
- For Northern Virginia, check Washington, D.C., papers as well as local ones.
Last verified:
Note: Coverage years, fees and web addresses are set by the libraries, archives and newspapers listed and can change. PublicLibraries.com is not affiliated with them.