[meta description: Do you want to know if someone has passed but can’t find an obituary? Our article explains how to find if someone died – no obituary.]
Tracking down the news of someone’s passing can be difficult, especially when you consider how emotional this process must be. Sometimes, obituaries are not available to help guide your search, which means you must turn to alternative methods to find the information you need. Our article tells you how to find out if someone died without the help of a published obituary.
Why Can’t I Find Someone’s Obituary?
There are a couple of main reasons why someone might not have an obituary available after passing. In general, if a death is too recent, an obituary might not have been published yet; this typically only occurs within the first few days when the next of kin is being notified, and an obituary is being prepared.
Alternatively, if a death is too historical, you might not be able to find someone’s obituary. However, you can generally assume that someone has passed if you are searching for someone in your family’s ancestry – the trick is finding out more information from their life without the use of an obituary to guide you.
In some cases, the family or loved ones of the deceased may choose not to publish an obituary. This is typically done if the family is very private, or if the deceased outlined in their will that they did not wish for any kind of obituary to be published.
Ways to Find Out If Someone Died
The following methods can help you figure out if someone has died and allow you to gather more information about someone’s passing without an obituary.
Social Media
Social media is one of the best places to find out if someone died if you do not have an obituary available. People will generally post the news of a loved one’s passing fairly quickly on social media, and you can follow these postings to find updates about memorial services from here.
To search social media for the information you need, navigate to the profile page of the person you suspect has passed or visit the profile pages of their close family members and friends. You can generally find updates about a person’s passing from here without having to wait for obituaries and news articles.
Mutual Friends and Family
Mutual friends and family members are also a great source for gathering the information you need about someone’s passing. You can text or call your friends and family members who knew the potentially deceased to gather more information about their whereabouts and status. If it turns out the person you are searching for has passed, you can learn more details about a memorial service from mutual friends and family.
News Articles
Different from an obituary, a news article might detail an accident or other unfortunate incident that has caused someone to pass away. News articles are published more quickly than obituaries and are constantly updated with the newest information regarding someone’s passing. You can check local news websites for more details if you are searching to see if someone you know has passed.
Local Government Records
Local government records such as property records, death records, and court records can give you an idea of whether or not someone is still alive. To find these records and search through them, you can go in person or visit the website of your local County Clerk’s Office. From there, you can look through death records, including records on historical deaths and town censuses, to figure out if someone has died.
People Search Tools
People search tools utilize public records to give you details about a person, and death records are generally considered public records. To find out if someone has passed away using this search method, you can use a people search site like FreePeopleSearch.com. It is a people search free tool you can use that can help you find out if someone has died.
Simply type their name and the location they were last known to be into the tool, run the search, and then review the results to figure out if the person has passed or not.
Even if you cannot find details on someone’s passing, you could find mutual friends and family members or even contact details to help you conduct further research about this person.
Finding the Information You Need to Know
Finding out if someone has died can be complicated, but many people feel the need to know this information as soon as possible. If you cannot find an obituary to confirm someone’s death, don’t hesitate to use any of the methods in our article to gather the information you need to know about someone’s passing.
