Obituaries and death notices

Obituaries are the accounts of the life and achievements of deceased persons – usually appear in newspapers but they may also be found in journals or as separately published commemorative items.

Death notices are announcements placed in the newspapers by members of the family – may give information including the:

date and place of death
age
names of close relatives
details of the funeral

Notices can be found in early newspapers from the 18th century but it was probably not until the 1930s that it became common practice. The dates that we cover are from 18th century to date.

Location of records

The obituaries and death notices are located at:

Sheffield Local Studies Library
Central Library

Order documents

As most newspapers and cuttings are only available on microform we strongly advise that you book a film/fiche reader in advance of your visit. Please contact us for further information.

Copies

We can normally supply copies for private study purposes, subject to the usual copyright regulations.

Further information

An index of almost 8,000 obituaries that are likely to be found in the local newspapers, between 1850 and 1975, was compiled by Peter Harvey in 1984. Inclusion of a person’s name does not guarantee that an obituary was published but it is likely because of the sources used.

In most cases the obituary appears within a day or two of the death but sometimes it may take longer, for example when a person with Sheffield connections died elsewhere.

With the permission of Peter’s family, the Sheffield Obituary Index is available to download from the bottom of this page.

The Local Studies card index to local newspapers, c. 1930 - 1959, and the press cuttings files from 1960 to the present day also include obituaries.

References to obituaries may also be found in the Local Studies card and online catalogues. These include: