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Search Wisconsin Obituaries
Look up obituaries, death records and people by name.
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Obituary guide
How to find an obituary in Wisconsin
For a recent death, start with the funeral home's website and the local paper's obituary page. For an older obituary, try the Wisconsin Historical Society's name indexes, Milwaukee Public Library's obituary resources, or a regional index such as Winnefox Vital Records for the Oshkosh and Fond du Lac area.
What to have ready
- Full name, including a maiden name or nickname
- Approximate date and place of death (city and county)
- Age at death or birth year
- Names of close relatives (spouse, children, parents)
Tip: Knowing the county narrows the search more than anything else. Wisconsin's best obituary indexes are run by local and regional library systems.
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 Wisconsin page |
| 1990s to recent decades | Milwaukee Public Library's obituaries and death notices page (Journal Sentinel death notices from June 16, 1995 in NewsBank); Winnefox Vital Records; your library's newspaper databases with a library card |
| Older or historic | The Wisconsin Historical Society (pre-1907 vital record indexes and newspaper clippings); MPL's Milwaukee Sentinel Index, 1837–1890; Chronicling America; county genealogical societies |
| Official death record | State registration began in October 1907, and the Wisconsin Historical Society indexes earlier records. See how to order a Wisconsin death record. |
Major newspapers' obituary pages
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- Wisconsin State Journal (Madison)
- Green Bay Press-Gazette
- The Post-Crescent (Appleton)
- La Crosse Tribune
- Legacy.com, Wisconsin
Each page loaded without a login on our check. Older news archives usually need a subscription or a library card.
Libraries and archives
- Wisconsin Historical Society family history collections: more than 3,000,000 indexed records
- Milwaukee Public Library: obituaries and death notices: HeritageHub, plus Milwaukee Journal and Sentinel microfilm
- Winnefox Vital Records: newspaper notices from Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Marquette, Waushara and Winnebago counties, which you can filter by library (Oshkosh included)
- Oshkosh Public Library
Timeline expectations
- Recent obituaries appear when the family or funeral home publishes them, so timing varies.
- Milwaukee death notices can be browsed on microfilm from 1837 to the present. Look one day to one week after the date of death.
- Winnefox: the index combines several local indexes, so dates and detail vary by library.
Tips
- Milwaukee Public Library has a clipping file of death notices and obituaries, mostly from the Journal and Sentinel, from about the 1930s to June 30, 1992, arranged by surname.
- In Winnefox, searching "smith" also returns names like "Goldsmith", so scroll down to the exact name.
- Get the date from a death record first. Most newspaper microfilm isn't indexed.
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.