How to Monitor Obituaries Across the US

You need to find an obituary. But you don't know where the person lives now. They may have moved. They may split time between states.

Checking individual websites won't work. You need a way to search everywhere at once.

Here's the challenge: no single source covers all US obituaries. They appear in newspapers, funeral home sites, and memorial platforms. No database pulls them together.

This guide explains the scattered landscape. We show why single sources leave gaps. And how multi-source monitoring solves the problem.

Why No Single Source Is Enough

The US has a fragmented obituary landscape. No central system exists. Death notices appear through thousands of independent channels.

The Scale of the Problem

Consider how many obituary sources exist:

• 19,000+ funeral homes: Each may have its own website. Some use major platforms. Others have basic sites. Some have no web presence.
• 1,200+ daily newspapers: Many publish online. But archiving practices vary widely.
• 6,000+ weekly papers: Smaller publications with limited or no online presence.
• Memorial platforms: Legacy.com, Dignity Memorial, Tributes.com, FindAGrave. Each gathers subsets through partnerships.
• Religious and ethnic publications: Church bulletins, ethnic papers, community newsletters.
• Hospital and hospice publications: Some healthcare groups publish death notices.

No single aggregator can partner with all these sources. Even Legacy.com, with its many newspaper partners, covers only a fraction.

Why Aggregation Falls Short

Several factors prevent complete coverage:

• Partnership requirements: Aggregators need formal agreements with each source.
• Technical barriers: Not all sites can be easily indexed.
• Print-only publications: Some papers publish only in print.
• Regional focus: Many aggregators cover specific regions, not nationwide.
• Constant change: Funeral homes open and close. Papers change hands. The landscape shifts.

Types of Obituary Sources

Understanding source types helps explain coverage challenges.

Funeral Home Websites

Funeral homes often post obituaries first—sometimes before newspapers.

• Speed: Updated immediately when families approve
• Detail: Photos, service schedules, guest books
• Variability: Quality ranges from sophisticated to basic
• Archives: Some keep obituaries permanently. Others remove them after weeks.
• Gaps: Smaller funeral homes may lack any website.

Monitoring funeral homes provides early detection. But it requires scanning thousands of sites.

Newspaper Obituary Sections

Traditional newspapers remain a primary venue. Digital presence varies:

• Major dailies: Well-indexed online with searchable archives
• Regional papers: Variable online presence. Some partner with aggregators.
• Weekly papers: Often limited websites. Some are print-only.
• Cost: Newspaper obituaries require payment. This affects publication rates.
• Timing: Subject to editorial schedules.

Memorial Aggregation Platforms

Sites like Legacy.com and Dignity Memorial gather obituaries from multiple sources:

• Breadth: Combine obituaries from partner newspapers and funeral homes
• Standardization: Consistent formats with search functionality
• Limitations: Only include partnered sources
• Best use: One source among many. Don't rely on it exclusively.

Cemetery and Burial Records

Sites like FindAGrave and BillionGraves contain burial records:

• User-contributed: Volunteers add records. Coverage is inconsistent.
• Historical depth: May include older deaths.
• Delayed entry: Information added after burial, not immediately.
• Supplemental value: Good for verification, not timely notification.

Social Media

Family and friends post memorial tributes on social platforms:

• Speed: May appear before formal obituaries
• Informal: Not standardized. Hard to monitor systematically.
• Privacy: Many posts are private or friends-only.
• Verification: Less reliable than formal sources.

How Multi-Source Monitoring Works

Effective monitoring scans multiple source types at once. It doesn't rely on any single aggregator.

Source Aggregation

Quality services build coverage through:

• Direct partnerships: Agreements with funeral home networks and newspaper groups
• Web scanning: Automated crawling of funeral home and newspaper sites
• API integrations: Data feeds from memorial platforms
• Continuous expansion: Ongoing work to add new sources

More sources means more likely to find obituaries wherever they're published.

Matching Across Sources

With obituaries appearing in multiple places, matching algorithms must:

• De-duplicate: Recognize the same obituary across sources
• Cross-reference: Use multiple sources to improve match confidence
• Handle variations: Account for different name formats and spellings
• Prioritize accuracy: Focus on high-confidence matches only

Continuous Scanning

Nationwide monitoring runs constantly:

• Frequency: Multiple scans daily
• 24/7 operation: Obituaries can be posted any time
• Processing speed: Matches within hours of publication
• Alert delivery: Notifications sent promptly

What Monitoring Provides

Multi-source monitoring offers key advantages over manual searching:

Broader Geographic Reach

No need to guess which local sources to check:

• You don't know the person's current location
• They may have moved
• Death may occur away from where they lived
• Obituaries may appear in multiple cities

No Timing Guesswork

Continuous scanning eliminates timing uncertainty. See our guide on obituary publication timelines:

• You don't need to know when to check
• New obituaries are detected as published
• You receive notification instead of remembering to search
• Monitoring runs indefinitely without extra effort

Source Diversity

Checking multiple source types catches more obituaries:

• Funeral home obituaries not in newspapers
• Regional newspaper obituaries not on major aggregators
• Memorial site listings regardless of original venue

Time Savings

Automated monitoring replaces:

• Daily checks of multiple websites
• Remembering to search over weeks or months
• Tracking which sources you've already checked
• Manually reviewing results for common names

Important Limitations

No service—including ObituaryMonitor—guarantees 100% coverage. Know what monitoring cannot do:

Unpublished Obituaries

If a family doesn't publish an obituary, no service will find it:

• Private families who don't publicize
• Deaths without family involvement
• Families who can't afford publication
• Cremations without formal services

Print-Only Publications

Some publications exist only in print:

• No digital version to monitor
• Archives not digitized
• These publications are declining but still exist

Private Funeral Homes

Small, independent funeral homes may lack online presence:

• No website to monitor
• Not connected to networks
• May publish only in local papers (if at all)

International Deaths

Most services focus on US sources:

• Deaths abroad may not be covered
• US citizens dying overseas may have foreign obituaries
• Some families publish in the deceased's home country

Processing Delays

Some delay always exists:

• Time between publication and source indexing
• Time between indexing and matching
• Time between match and alert delivery

Quality services minimize delays to hours, not days. Instant notification isn't possible.

Who Benefits Most

Nationwide monitoring helps these users most:

Professional Users

• Estate attorneys: Know when clients pass to start administration
• Insurance companies: Proactive claims processing
• Debt collection agencies: Stop collection, transition to estate claims
• Trust administrators: Track beneficiaries across states
• Skip tracers: Verify status before spending resources

Personal Users

• Genealogists: Track distant relatives
• Adoptees: Monitor biological relatives
• Estranged family: Stay informed about relatives
• Old friends: Track classmates, military buddies, colleagues

Unknown Location

Nationwide monitoring is essential when you don't know where someone lives. You can't target local sources without location. See our guide on finding an obituary without location.

Learn more about how our monitoring works, or view pricing plans. For details on alerts, see obituary email alerts.