Lexington, Virginia Obituary Archive Search | GenealogyBank (2024)

Explore Lexington, VA Obituary Search Archive

Sorting through masses of historical archives to find your ancestors can be challenging. Discovering your family history previously involved traveling to various records offices and spending hours sifting through files.

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

More than 95% of our online database cannot be accessed via any other platform. We take the hassle out of looking through the Lexington obituary archives.

Some of the benefits of looking up Lexington local newspaper obituaries include:

  • Find those elusive ancestors and add them to your family tree.
  • Discover when your ancestors lived and died.
  • Learn more about the stories of your immediate and extended family.

With newspapers being the primary source of communication within communities for centuries, Lexington obits are a treasure trove of vital genealogical information.

But how do you perform a Lexington, Virginia obituary search and get accurate results?

Search Newspaper Obituaries

  • News-Gazette
  • Ring-Tum Phi, The: Washington and Lee University

Related Data Collections

Virginia Obituaries

Lexington Obituaries

Newspaper Archive

Newspaper Obituaries

1840 U.S. Federal Census Records

Lexington Birth Records

Lexington Marriage Records

How to Search Lexington, Virginia Obituary Archives

How do you begin searching through our vast Lexington obituary archives?

The easiest way to perform a basic Lexington obituary search is to enter the last name of your relative and press the “Search” button. You’ll gain access to thousands of Virginia newspaper obituaries in seconds.

However, if you have a common last name or want to discover someone specific, you need to go deeper than this by using advanced search techniques. Follow these steps to begin narrowing down your results:

  • Step One - Enter known first, middle, and last names of your relative to increase accuracy. This will ensure close match Lexington, Virginia obituaries are more likely to pertain to the right person.
  • Step Two - Add in keywords using the information you already know about your relative. For example, if you know which town or neighborhood they resided in, include these keywords. Alternatively, try looking into US Census Records.
  • Step Three - Likewise, you can exclude certain keywords to filter out irrelevant results. Maybe you know they didn’t live in a specific town or go to a specific school? Include these keywords as exclusions.
  • Step Four - Even if you don’t know the year they died, you can include a year range. Our search feature will include all results relevant to a specific period, check out marriage records and birth records to hone in your research.
  • Step Five - Change the sorting options to find different obituaries. You can order results by newest, oldest, and best match.

Tips for a Successful Lexington Obituary Search

Accurate record keeping has always been a major problem for modern family historians. When tracking down your ancestors, you need to be aware that mistakes were common. Many records were taken orally and so may have been noted down incorrectly.

Older Lexington, Virginia local newspaper obituaries typically contained valuable pieces of family history. These snippets of information can confirm whether an ancestor belonged to your family and may also serve as foundations for additional research into your extended family.

When searching Lexington obits, here are our top tips for uncovering your family history:

  • Work backward. Use more recent known ancestors to uncover older ones.
  • Search for ancestors by their initials. Older obituaries may not have listed your ancestor’s full name.
  • When looking for a female relative, search by their husband’s name.
  • Search by common misspellings. Information may not have been noted down correctly.
  • When looking through the Lexington obituary archives, double-check information by using any official government records you have.

These research strategies can help you dig deeper and overcome those frustrating dead ends. Using these search techniques can also help you fact-check your findings to ensure you have the right person.

How to Find Death Notices in Lexington

Death notices in Lexington are another source of valuable information for discovering those elusive ancestors. There is a difference between death notices and obituaries, however. Even though some people use the term interchangeably, they are two different things.

Obituaries are newspaper ads taken out by the family. They describe the person, their life, and who they are. Death notices are formalized reports that someone has died.

Death notices were often used to tell family, friends, and extended family members about a person’s death and where the funeral service will be held. They are especially useful if you want to find out where one of your ancestors was buried.

Lexington obituaries, on the other hand, are dictated entirely by the family. Inaccuracies and exaggerations were always common, so take the information detailed in them with a pinch of salt.

If you want to look up death notices alongside Lexington local newspaper obituaries, here are some tips on how to do it:

  • Utilize advanced search techniques, such as proximity search and Boolean operators.
  • Factcheck found records by searching through multiple collections on GenealogyBank.
  • Use any relatives mentioned in death notices to fact-check and uncover other sections of your family tree.

Lexington obituary archives and death notices are invaluable sources of genealogical information. If you’re ready to trace your story with GenealogyBank, perform your first search now.

Other Useful Collections To Try

  • US Newspapers Archives
    • Birth Records
    • Marriage Records
    • Passenger Lists
  • Government Publications
  • Social Security Death Index
  • US Cultural Archives
    • African-American
    • Hispanic Ancestry
    • Irish Genealogy Records
    • Native American Ancestry
    • German-American
    • Italian Genealogy
    • Jewish-American

For more information on discovering who you are and where you came from, download our free guide, “Tips for Searching Newspapers.”

Lexington, Virginia Obituary Archive Search | GenealogyBank (2024)

FAQs

How do I find old obituaries in Virginia? ›

Online Resources
  1. 1980-2014 United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index and images.
  2. Online Virginia Death Records & Indexes links by county.
  3. Virginia Genealogy Obituaries.
  4. ObitsArchive.com - Virginia ($)
  5. ObituariesHelp.org - Virginia Newspaper Obituaries Listings.

How do I find obituaries in the US by name? ›

Internet Public Library – Finding Obituaries – An updated guide on searching for obituaries. Legacy.com – This site allows you to search for recently published obituaries, a small fee is required to view most results. Obituary Central – A database that searches for obituaries and performs cemetery searches.

How to find out how someone died in Virginia? ›

Information for obtaining a Death Certificate directly from the Virginia Department Health Vital Records Division can be found at: www.vdh.virginia.gov by clicking on “Births, Deaths & Marriages” or by calling one of their customer service representatives at 804-662-6200.

When did Virginia start keeping death records? ›

With the exception of the years 1896 to 1912, the Office of Vital Records has records of births, deaths, and marriages since 1853. Vital Records has divorce records on file from 1918 to the present.

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Allyn Kozey

Last Updated:

Views: 6345

Rating: 4.2 / 5 (63 voted)

Reviews: 94% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Allyn Kozey

Birthday: 1993-12-21

Address: Suite 454 40343 Larson Union, Port Melia, TX 16164

Phone: +2456904400762

Job: Investor Administrator

Hobby: Sketching, Puzzles, Pet, Mountaineering, Skydiving, Dowsing, Sports

Introduction: My name is Allyn Kozey, I am a outstanding, colorful, adventurous, encouraging, zealous, tender, helpful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.