Obituary Files

We call many things obituaries. The Western History and Genealogy obituary files are indexes to the funeral, death, burial or obituary notices from the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post.

A death notice is that first announcement of the passing of an individual. It will list the name of the deceased with a brief notice of arrangements. An obituary is often a news article listing biographical details as well as family members and funeral arrangements. Funeral notices appear the day before or the day of the funeral and announce the time and place of service as well as burial place and time. Burial notices are most brief and list the name of the deceased or their surname with a note of permit.

The index varies in format: card index, microfilm, microfiche, bound volumes, computer printouts, and electronic files which are available through history.denverlibrary.org. Obituaries and deaths between 1865 and 1885 are listed in the Western History Subject Guide. We also have an index for the years 1900, 1918 and 1919. Volunteers are busy indexing 1920. From 1921 through 2015 you have access for most of those years in 5 year increments through the Denver Obituary Project.

There are several obituary indexing projects available for researchers to use such as the Colorado Obituary Index, created by the Colorado Genealogical Society. The coverage is for small town Colorado papers primarily for the 1980s and 1990s. The Intermountain Jewish News covers much of the 20th century. 

Once researchers have located an entry in any of our indexes they can request a copy of the notice through our Contact Us form. We look forward to hearing from you.