Obituaries in York, PA | York Daily Record (2025)

FAQs

How do I find an obituary in PA? ›

Find an Obituary

The Cremation Society of Pennsylvania ® online obituary search tool gives you access to obituaries from thousands of locations across North America. You can search by first or last name, state and publication date.

Many funeral homes publish obituaries on their websites. These can usually be located with a Google search on the person's name. Local genealogical and historical societies, public libraries, and some newspaper publishers maintain clipping files of obituaries.

New York Public Library subscribes to many databases that can help researchers locate obituaries and death notices. The most useful are our newspaper databases. Oftentimes obituaries can be located by entering a person's name and week of death into the newspapers databases.

Obituaries are important. They provide us with the sad but significant news of people no longer alive who were once part of our communities. As important as they are in the ritual of mourning, they are expensive.

​County Courthouses in ​​Pennsylvania

Courthouses are important places to look for birth, marriage and death records. These are usually found in the Register of Wills office in each county. Records in the Recorder of Deeds offices can also be useful.

In PA, there is no legal mandate to publish an obituary in a newspaper when someone dies.

When writing an obituary for a woman who had a maiden name, simply write her first name and then in parentheses write her maiden name and then her married last name. For instance, Laura (Ingalls) Wilder, Marie (Sklodowska) Curie or Julia (McWilliams) Childs.

Definition for the Tagalog word obitwaryo:

obitwaryo. a notice or announcement regarding a deceased person, usually published; obituary; death notice; eulogy.

Is it disrespectful not to have an obituary? ›

Posting an obituary is not a legal requirement and is a sentimental action. Families don't have to publish one if they don't want it or do not have the funds to do so. While you do not have to share a death note or obituary, you must file a death certificate with your state's office.

The cost of a newspaper obituary depends on the size of the newspaper's circulation, whether there's a photo, the number of days it will run, and the size of the obituary. Small towns may charge $50, but on average expect to pay at least $250 for the typical short obituary.

Copyright and Obituaries. To be clear, obituaries are protected by copyright. They are creative works of expression that are fixed into a tangible medium of expression. Both the text and the images that make up an obituary are protected by copyright (even if the facts and information are not).

Explore Philadelphia, PA Obituary Search Archive

At GenealogyBank, we have made family research easy by digitizing more than 330 years' worth of Philadelphia obituaries in our national newspaper database. Now you can look up Philadelphia obits and track down your bloodline in Pennsylvania in a matter of seconds.

Order certified death certificate copies online, through PA's third party provider VitalChek. This is the fastest way to obtain certfied copies, with processing times usually estimated at 2 weeks. Options for standard and expedited shipping are available (with an additional charge).