Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Historical Obituaries in Newspapers (1829 - 1922)

How to Search Philadelphia Inquirer Obituary Archives

Looking up Philadelphia Inquirer obituaries in Pennsylvania doesn't have to be difficult. Whether you're trying to understand where you come from for the first time or you're looking to add some detail to a family tree, it couldn't be easier to perform a Philadelphia Inquirer obituary search.

All you have to do to get started is enter the last name of a chosen relative and press the “Search” button. It’s an excellent launching point for further research into those elusive relatives.

You can also get some additional guidance by downloading the free “Tips for Searching Titles” guide.

If you’re trying to get more information on a specific relative, follow these steps to perform an advanced search of the Philadelphia Inquirer obituary archives.

• Step One – Begin by entering the first and last names of your relative. You’ll get more accurate results if you also have a middle name. Our search results will present you with close match obituaries.
• Step Two – Add a keyword, such as a school or a town, to narrow your search results.
• Step Three – Exclude keywords to avoid uncovering obituaries unrelated to your family tree.
• Step Four – Include a year range. With almost 150 years of history, the chances are your ancestors share the same name as someone else’s ancestor.
• Step Five – Get different results by changing the sorting options. You can order your results by showing the best matches, newest entries, and oldest entries.

Tips for a Successful Philadelphia Inquirer Obituary Search

Genealogy research can be challenging as many records are incomplete or filled with mistakes. For a successful Philadelphia Inquirer obituary search, it’s good to have multiple strategies at your disposal to ensure you get the correct relative.

Most older obituaries will include some pieces of family information. Obituaries can be used to uncover information about other relatives or to confirm that you have the right person in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

For a successful search of Philadelphia Inquirer obituaries, follow these tips:

• Use information from more recent ancestors to find older relatives.
• Try searching by initials. Many old Philadelphia Inquirer obits used initials instead of full names.
• Are you looking for a female relative? Try searching for their husband’s name.
• Perform searches by using common misspellings. TITLE editors often didn’t fact-check spellings in the past.

By implementing these strategies, you can go deeper with your research and uncover the ancestors you never knew you had. It’s also ideal for fact-checking, as many obituaries weren’t necessarily created with 100% accuracy.