Hi, I am passing on a great site for searching obits and death notices that someone shared with me. If you ever need to log in, use "guest" as name and password but usually you aren't asked.  You "check" the papers you wish to include in your search.  The Chicago Tribune has archived obits from 1860-1984 in their HA(Historic Archives) collection. Not all of their years are indexed yet, but they are continually adding more. Most of the other papers listed are more current, as is the case of the Peoria Journal Star and St. Louis Post Dispatch. When searching in the Chicago area, I "checked" all of the Chicago papers that were listed. You might start with a surname search in obits and death notices.  if you don't find it there, do a general search in the HA area.  That too will pull up the older obits. You can find out if that year is indexed yet by doing a search with a year or a date. Check it out.  Especially if you have any lines in the Chicago area. It's such fun when you find an obit or death notice. They have so much information that is helpful and a number of states have papers you can choose. <A HREF="http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/Homepage?p_action=doc&p_theme=current&p_nbid=X53H54HLMTA2MDMwNDE0Mi45MDI2ODg6MTo1Omd1ZXN0">NewsBank InfoWeb</A> http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/Homepage?p_action=doc& p_theme=current&p_nbid=X53H54HLMTA2MDMwNDE0Mi45MDI2ODg6MTo1Omd1ZXN0 Good luck. (I was raised in Farmington and found a number of Farmington area obits in the Peoria Journal Star.) Karen