Looking for a Newspaper Obituary?

1 October 2018 - Updated by gmc. 

One of my favorite genealogy gurus, John Michael Neill offered this "Genealogy Tip of the Day" on November 16th:

It’s easy to locate an obituary in one newspaper and move on to another research task. In some locations, there may have been several newspapers in the area that might have published a death notice or an obituary on your ancestor. One may have easily included bits of information that were not mentioned in others.

Ask yourself: “Are there other newspapers that might have published an obituary?”

You never know what you will find until you look.

I reckon that the circumstances here in Beaufort County may be replicated across the globe. Some years we have more than one newspaper; other years, we have no newspapers at all. So, the number of local newspapers or regional newspapers in which you should look in hopes of finding a published obituary for one of your ancestors could vary widely.

The Beaufort District Collection has the following newspapers for you to use in our Research Room:

19^th Century

Palmetto Herald (March 17, 1864 - December 29, 1864)

Free South (January 17, 1863 - November 19, 1864)

New South (March 15, 1861 - September 29, 1866) – also online at http://library.sc.edu/digital/collections/newsouth.html

Beaufort Republican (October 12, 1871 - October 16, 1873) – also online at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042623/

Port Royal Commercial and Beaufort County Republican (October 23, 1873 - April 1874) 

20^th Century

*Palmetto Post (January 5, 1882 - December 27, 1906)

*Beaufort Gazette (July 16, 1903 - Present)

*County Democrat (July 20, 1910 - December 1, 1911)

Beaufort Times (June 21, 1944 - December 20, 1945)

Sea Islander (September 13, 1968 - December 1974)

*Island Packet (January 1974 - Present)

Hilton Head Report (January 1986 - March 1988)

Bluffton Eccentric (June 25, 1987 – December 31, 1991) – Hardcopy only

Hilton Head Sun (February 1988 - May 1989)

Lowcountry Ledger (December 1988 - December 1991) – Hardcopy and microfilm

Hilton Head News (January - December 1993; January - December 1996)

Beaufort Catalyst (May 22, 1993 - December 31, 1995)

Bluffton Packet (January 1994 - December 1995)

Hilton Head News (January - December 1993; January - December 1996)

21^st Century

*Beaufort Gazette (July 16, 1903 – March 31, 2010)

*Island Packet (January 1974 – March 31, 2010)

*Beaufort Gazette/Island Packet (These newspapers substantially merged in April 2010 – Present. We microfilmed the two newspapers into one microfilm to remove duplication of identical content across the two newspapers to cut microfilming costs.)

*Beaufort Today Hardcopy only

*Bluffton Today  

*Hilton Head Island Today

Island News Hardcopy only

We provide an online index to the obituaries drawn from select of these newspapers at https://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org/ooi. The bulk of the obituaries indexed were published from 1882 to 1984.  *(One- asterisk symbol) indicates that entries for at least some of the issues of the newspaper are in the obituary index. 

Please bear in mind that there is no legal requirement in the State of South Carolina that an obituary for a deceased individual is published in a newspaper. This online index does not include the actual text of the obituary notices. It lists only dates and newspapers in which the notices appear. 

We provide a very limited, fee-based service to help customers who cannot or choose not to come into our Research Room to perform their work. We limit our obituary service to providing a photocopy or scan of an obituary notice for a deceased individual as found in our local newspaper microfilm. Most requests for assistance are completed within fourteen working days of the receipt of the payment. 
  
Obituary Services Fees

LEVEL 1: The deceased is listed in our Online Obituary Index file which is found at  https://www.beaufortcountylibrary.org/ooi. Please attach the citation from the Online Obituary Index with your request for assistance. 

Per listed individual:  $5.00

LEVEL 2: The deceased is not listed in our Online Obituary Index file. If the deceased  individual is not listed within the current index you must provide a precise date of death with your  request. We will not perform this service without an exact date of death. Please note that we read only seven issues after the date of death you provide to us.

Per unlisted individual:  $10.00  - whether or not we are successful in locating an obituary for the person you requested.    

To Place an Order: 

1.  By E-Mail:Submit orders by e-mail to: bdc@bcgov.net

2.  By US Post Office Mail: Submit requests and payments (made payable to "Beaufort County Library") by postal mail to:

Beaufort District Collection
ATTN: Assistants
Beaufort County Library
311 Scott Street
Beaufort, SC 29902 (USA)

3.  By Telephone: Telephone requests can be submitted by leaving a voicemail message at (843) 255-6468. Please speak clearly and slowly. Leave your telephone number and name so that staff can return your call to verify your address and the topic of your request.