Add a name. We monitor obituaries. You get notified.
Get notified when an obituary is published, so you can stop searching for it.
Monitor obituaries for someone you expect may pass away, or someone you've lost touch with. We check funeral homes and obituary websites and notify you when a notice is published.
Add watches from your account; turn on ongoing scans when your plan is active.
Monitoring 16,187+ obituary sources nationwide.
Used when a death is expected, or when you've lost touch.
Obituary monitoring is used in two common situations:
- When someone has recently passed away and you are waiting for the obituary
- When you've lost touch with someone and want to know if an obituary is ever published
Add a name once. We keep watching obituary sources and notify you if a notice is published, whether that's days, months, or years from now.
Publishers cluster by region—explore funeral homes by state, including large hubs like Texas and California, and open real listings such as this Houston funeral home or this Los Angeles funeral home. Read how long after death obituaries are typically posted and obituary monitoring and alerts, then start monitoring a name when you are ready for ongoing alerts.
Personal: closure, travel, family, and less time waiting in the dark. Professional: proof, risk, deadlines, and document verification before the next step.
16,187+
Sources monitored
50
States covered
500+
Law firms trust us
24/7
Active monitoring
Who uses ObituaryMonitor
Public obituary and funeral-home notices—not a claim on every death in the country.
Families
Closure and staying informed when a notice may publish later.
Probate attorneys
Diligence and timing around public notices and sources.
Debt collectors
Portfolio monitoring when obituaries are part of the signal set.
Investigators
Status tracking without daily manual site checks.
Genealogy researchers
Long-term watches for names that may surface years later.
What you get
- Email when a high-confidence match is found
- Link to the obituary source
- Timestamped match details when your plan includes them
What we monitor
- Funeral home obituary pages and published obituary sources in our coverage set
- Not every death produces a public notice—we do not claim full coverage of all deaths
When a match isn't right
You can mark a result as not a match. That feedback helps improve relevance over time for your watches.
Placeholder — verification excerpt
Subject: Jane M. Smith · Source: Riverside Memorial · Detected: 2026-03-12 · Watch ID logged
Illustrative; real reports follow your plan and account settings.
How obituary monitoring works
Add a name. We monitor obituaries. You get notified.
Step 1
Add a name
Enter the person’s name and last known location.
Step 2
We monitor obituaries
We continuously scan funeral homes and obituary websites where notices are typically published.
Step 3
You get notified
When a published notice matches your watch, you receive an alert with the obituary and source.
Most obituaries are published 2 to 5 days after death. We monitor during this critical period so you don’t have to keep searching. See obituary posting timelines and how monitoring and alerts differ from one-off search. Many notices appear first on local funeral home sites—our directory spans all states, with dense coverage in places like Texas and California.
Why not just search Google for obituaries?
Obituaries are published on funeral home websites and local publishers first. They don’t all appear in Google immediately (or in one search), and they appear at different times across sources. Some notices never hit the first page of results the day you search. Monitoring is different from searching: we watch continuously and notify you when a new obituary match is posted.
- Many funeral homes publish obituaries only on their own sites
- Indexing and ranking lag behind publication
- Timing varies by family, funeral home, and newspaper
- Manual searching is easy to miss during a busy week
| Topic | ObituaryMonitor | Google search | Google Alerts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runs continuously for a name you save | Yes | No | Limited |
| Scans funeral home and obituary sites directly | Yes | Hit or miss | Usually web/news only |
| Notifies you when a new obituary match appears | Yes | No | Sometimes |
| Audit trail and professional reporting | On plans | No | No |
Read more: how to find an obituary online and obituary monitoring vs Google Alerts.
What you receive
Here is exactly what you will get: alerts for families, verification artifacts for professionals.
When a match is found, you receive an email alert and a verification report with the obituary, source, and date captured.
Illustrative examples below; real alerts and reports match your account settings and plan.
From: alerts@obituarymonitor.com
Subject: Obituary match: Jane M. Smith
Jane M. Smith
Confidence: 94% · Age/location aligned
Published: Mar 12, 2026 · Open obituary
Death verification summary
Subject: Jane M. Smith
Detected: 2026-03-12 · Source: Riverside Memorial
Audit: watch created · scans logged · match timestamped
Personal users receive
- Obituary link
- Funeral home or newspaper source
- Publication date
- Location information
Where obituaries are published
Obituaries are typically published on funeral home websites, local newspapers, and online obituary aggregators. These sources update at different times, and obituaries are often published several days after death. ObituaryMonitor continuously monitors these sources and notifies you when an obituary is posted.
Learn more: where obituaries are published, how long after death an obituary is posted, and our guides hub.
Who uses obituary monitoring?
Families use it for notifications. Professionals use it for verification, workflows, and documentation.
Families & Friends
Waiting to know when an obituary is posted so you can make arrangements, plan travel, attend services, or reconnect with family.
For Families →Probate & Estate Attorneys
Verify deaths, track cases, and get documentation for court and estate filings.
Probate workflows →Debt Collectors & Asset Recovery
Monitor obituaries for skip tracing, collections strategy, and deceased-subject detection.
Skip tracing →Private Investigators & Insurance
Death verification for investigations, insurance claims, and locating individuals, before field hours are spent.
Investigators →Why people use obituary monitoring
Real scenarios from both personal and professional use cases.
“We were waiting to hear when the obituary was posted so we could plan travel for the funeral.”
“I’m a probate attorney and need to verify when someone has died for estate cases.”
“My client disappeared and we needed to know if he passed away.”
“I lost touch with someone years ago and wanted to know if they died.”
“We monitor obituaries for skip tracing and collections.”
“Insurance claim death verification.”
Obituaries are often published days after someone passes away. We monitor obituary websites and notify you when the obituary is posted.
Add a name. We monitor obituaries. You get notified.
Monitoring you can rely on
We watch public obituary and funeral home sources across the U.S. so you are notified when a notice is published, not only when you remember to search.
Obituaries are often published days after someone passes away. We monitor obituary websites so you don't have to keep searching.
Guides & resources
Learn about obituary publication timelines, monitoring best practices, and more.
How to Know If Someone Died
Why finding this information is difficult and what options exist.
Obituary Posting Timelines
Typical timing for obituary publication after death.
How to Find an Obituary Online
Ultimate search guide: Google, databases, missing info, and why results are empty.
Track Obituaries Online
Automated monitoring vs. manual searching methods.
Monitor Obituaries Nationwide
How automated nationwide monitoring works across 16,187+ sources.
What is ObituaryMonitor?
An overview of our obituary monitoring service and features.
Frequently asked questions
What does 'high-confidence' mean?
We require a 90%+ match score before sending alerts. This means matching first name, last name, location data, and when available, age and relatives. This threshold significantly reduces false positives—you only hear from us when it matters.
How soon after death does an obituary post?
Typically 1-3 days after death, though timing varies by funeral home and family preferences. We scan sources continuously, 24/7, to catch notices as soon as they're published online.
Is my information private?
Absolutely. Your watch list is encrypted using industry-standard security and never shared with third parties. We only monitor publicly available obituary notices—no private database access.
What is a Negative Search Certificate?
When monitoring concludes with no matches, we generate a signed PDF certificate proving due diligence was performed—essential for probate attorneys documenting 'reasonable diligence' in court filings.
How many sources do you monitor?
We continuously scan over 16,000 obituary sources nationwide, including funeral home websites, newspaper obituaries, and memorial sites. Coverage spans all 50 states and DC.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes, cancel anytime with no fees or questions asked. Your subscription remains active until the end of your billing period. We also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee for new subscribers.