Contact us – Florida Obituary Records is the page you reach when you need help with death notices, funeral home listings, and genealogy lookups across the Sunshine State. This site is a private research hub, not a government office.
We connect you with the right tools, agencies, and archives so you can locate a Florida death notice by name, county, or date. Use the sections below to send us a message, report a mistake, or get pointed to the official record holder for any Florida obituary search.
About This Florida Obituary Records Site
This site collects links, tips, and direct paths to Florida obituary records so you do not waste hours clicking dead pages. We do not hold the records ourselves. We show you where they live. If you need an official death certificate, court order, or certified printout, we will always point you to the proper state or county office that can help.
What We Cover
Our pages cover death notices from every Florida county, including Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Orange, Duval, Pinellas, Lee, Polk, and Brevard. We also list major cities like Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee, and Pensacola. Each city and county page links to local funeral homes, newspapers, libraries, and genealogy portals.
- Florida obituary search by full name or last name
- Florida death notices from 1900 to the present day
- Florida newspaper obituaries from archived print runs
- County-level Florida obituary lookup tools
- Genealogy records tied to Florida death certificates
What We Do Not Do
We are not the Florida Department of Health. We cannot pull vital records for you. We cannot file paperwork on your behalf. We cannot mail you a certified copy of a death certificate. If you need any of those, you must contact the proper office listed in the sections below.
How to Send Us a Message
Use the contact form on our main site to write to us. Tell us your name, your email, and a short note about your question. We read every message. Most replies arrive within two business days. We do not charge for help, and we do not sell your email to outside groups.
Best Reasons to Write
Some messages help us keep this site accurate and useful for other researchers. The most common reasons people write include reporting a broken link, pointing out a wrong date, suggesting a new county page, or asking where to find a record we have not listed yet. Any of these reasons is a good reason to send us a short note.
What to Include in Your Note
A good note gives us enough detail to act on it fast. Always include the page URL, the name on the record, the county, and the year of death if you have it. If you spotted a wrong phone number or a typo, copy the exact line so we can fix it quickly.
- The web address (URL) of the page you are writing about
- The full name of the person on the obituary
- The county or city in Florida
- The year of death or the date range you checked
- Your email so we can follow up
Official Florida Offices for Death Records
For a certified Florida death certificate or an official death record, you must go through the state or the county where the person died. These offices are the only ones that can issue a legal document you can use for probate, insurance, banking, or estate work. Below are the offices most readers ask us about.
Florida Department of Health
The Florida Department of Health keeps birth, death, marriage, and divorce records for the whole state. You can order Florida death certificates online, by mail, or in person. The state office started keeping death records in 1917 for the whole state. Counties kept some records earlier, but they vary by county.
County Clerk of Court
Your county Clerk of Court holds court files, land records, deeds, and some older death filings. If you need a probate file or an estate case number, the Clerk is your office. Many Clerks also run local genealogy rooms that hold obituary index cards for their county.
County Tax Collector
The Tax Collector does not keep death records, but they can tell you if property is still in a deceased person’s name. This helps heirs and genealogists track real estate tied to a Florida obituary search result.
Local Funeral Homes
Florida funeral homes post obituaries on their own websites. They also keep private files on the people they served. If you cannot find a death notice online, write to the funeral home that handled the burial. They can confirm dates, next of kin, and burial location.
Florida Obituary Search by County
Florida has 67 counties. Each one has its own history, newspapers, and funeral homes. The table below lists the top counties our readers search most often, along with the main city, the county seat, and a quick tip on where to look first.
| County | Main City | County Seat | Best First Stop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miami-Dade | Miami | Miami | Miami-Dade County Library obituary index |
| Broward | Fort Lauderdale | Fort Lauderdale | Broward County Historical Commission |
| Palm Beach | West Palm Beach | West Palm Beach | Palm Beach County Library System |
| Hillsborough | Tampa | Tampa | Hillsborough County Public Library |
| Orange | Orlando | Orlando | Orange County Library System |
| Duval | Jacksonville | Jacksonville | Jacksonville Public Library genealogy room |
| Pinellas | St. Petersburg | Clearwater | Pinellas Public Library Cooperative |
| Lee | Fort Myers | Fort Myers | Lee County Library System |
| Polk | Lakeland | Bartow | Polk County Historical Museum |
| Brevard | Melbourne | Titusville | Brevard County Library genealogy section |
Florida Obituary Search by City
Major Florida cities post obituaries in local newspapers, on funeral home sites, and on legacy portals. Many cities also have a city-run or library-run obituary index. The list below shows the cities our readers ask about the most, with a short tip for each one.
Miami Obituary Records
Miami obituaries run in The Miami Herald, The Miami News, and El Nuevo Herald. Older obituaries from the early 1900s sit on microfilm at the Miami-Dade Public Library. You can also search Florida obituary archives through Legacy.com and newspapers.com for Miami-Dade records.
Tampa Obituary Records
Tampa obituaries show up in The Tampa Tribune, The Tampa Bay Times, and the now-closed Tampa Morning Tribune. The Hillsborough County Public Library holds the main Tampa obituary index. Tampa funeral homes also post current notices on their own sites.
Orlando Obituary Records
Orlando obituaries appear in The Orlando Sentinel, and the Orange County Library has a strong genealogy collection. Search Florida obituary archives by date to pull Orlando-area death notices from the 1920s forward.
Jacksonville Obituary Records
Jacksonville obituaries run in The Florida Times-Union. The Jacksonville Public Library keeps the main city obituary file. Older Duval County death notices sit on rolls of microfilm that the library will copy for a small fee.
Free Florida Obituary Search Tools
Many Florida obituary searches are free. You do not need a paid account for most of them. The list below shows the top free obituary search tools for Florida, what they hold, and how to use them well.
FamilySearch Florida Obituaries
FamilySearch.org is run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is free to sign up. The site holds a large Florida obituary collection, with images and indexes. You can search by name, county, and year, and you can browse records by place.
Find a Grave Florida
Find a Grave is free to browse and free to add to. The site has millions of Florida cemetery records, with photos of gravestones and many obituaries attached. It works well for genealogy obituary records and for confirming burial locations.
Florida Digital Newspaper Library
The Florida Digital Newspaper Library (FDNL) is a free service from the University of Florida. It holds scanned Florida newspaper obituaries from the 1800s to about 2010. You can search by keyword, browse by title, and download PDF pages for free.
NewspaperArchives.com and Newspapers.com
These two sites charge for full access but often let you view free obituaries with a partial name or a short preview. They are strong for older Florida death notices that did not make it to funeral home sites.
Paid Florida Obituary Search Tools
Some Florida obituary records sit behind paid walls. These paid services give you faster access, more indexed names, and older runs. The table below compares the top paid Florida obituary databases by what they hold and what they cost.
| Service | What It Holds | Coverage Years | Cost Style |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ancestry Florida Obituaries | Indexed obituaries from U.S. newspapers, plus Florida death indexes | 1800s to current | Monthly subscription |
| MyHeritage Florida Obituaries | Obituaries from partner newspapers and funeral homes | 1900s to current | Monthly subscription |
| Newspapers.com Florida | Full-image scans of Florida newspapers | 1800s to recent | Monthly subscription |
| GenealogyBank Florida | Florida obituary archives and historical newspapers | 1800s to 2010s | Monthly subscription |
| Legacy.com Florida | Recent death notices from funeral homes across Florida | 1990s to current | Free with paid options |
Florida Funeral Home Obituaries
Florida funeral homes post obituaries on their own sites, on Legacy.com, and on local newspaper sites. Funeral home obituaries are the freshest source for current Florida death notices. They also give you service times, burial spots, and family names that older newspaper runs often leave out.
Top Florida Funeral Home Networks
Large funeral home chains post obituaries in one place so you can search all their Florida locations at once. The biggest networks in Florida include Dignity Memorial, Foundation Partners Group, and StoneMor. Independent funeral homes often post on their own sites or use a service like Frazer Consultants.
Searching Florida Funeral Home Obituaries
To search Florida funeral home obituaries well, start with the funeral home that served the family. If you do not know the funeral home, search the county name plus the word obituary. Then sort by date. Always cross-check the death date with the Florida Department of Health death index when you can.
Report a Mistake on This Site
We work hard to keep every page on this site correct. Still, links break, phone numbers change, and new funeral homes open each year. If you spot a mistake, please write. We fix reported errors within one to two weeks and give credit to the person who flagged them.
What Counts as a Mistake
A mistake can be a broken link, a wrong phone number, a misspelled county name, a wrong date of death, or a funeral home that has closed. It can also be a missing page that we have not added yet for a small Florida county.
How to Report One
Send us a short note with the URL of the page and the line that is wrong. If you have the correct data, include that too. We check every report and reply when the fix goes live.
Business and Partnership Inquiries
We work with funeral homes, genealogy sites, libraries, and local historians who want to share Florida obituary records with a wider audience. If you run a Florida funeral home, a local history group, or a genealogy blog, we would like to hear from you. We do not run banner ads on obituary pages, and we do not sell user data.
Types of Partnerships We Accept
We accept links from Florida funeral homes that post their own obituaries. We accept data feeds from libraries that hold Florida newspaper obituaries. We accept guest posts from credentialed Florida genealogists who can write clear how-to guides for our readers.
Types of Partnerships We Do Not Accept
We do not accept paid obituary listing services that hide records behind hard paywalls. We do not accept link trades that exist only to boost search rankings. We do not run paid posts that look like real obituaries. Our readers trust this site because we keep it clean.
Florida Obituary Research Tips
Florida obituary research goes faster when you use a few tested tips. These tips come from genealogists, librarians, and funeral directors who work with Florida death records every day.
Search the Florida Death Index First
The Florida Death Index gives you the county of death and the year of death. Once you have those two facts, you can pull the right county obituary archive and skip the guesswork. The state index runs from 1917 to the present day.
Search Old Newspapers by County, Not by City
Many small Florida towns did not have their own paper. The county paper covered the whole area. Search the county paper, not the town, when you work before 1950. The Florida Digital Newspaper Library makes this easy.
Use Maiden Names and Nicknames
Old Florida obituaries used nicknames and maiden names more often than today. Search for nickname versions of a name, like “Billy” for “William.” Search for the mother’s maiden name, which old obituaries often print in full.
Check the Library Vertical Files
County libraries keep vertical files on local families. These files often hold photocopied obituaries, funeral programs, and family group sheets. Call the local library and ask if they have a vertical file under the family name you need.
Frequently Asked Questions About Florida Obituary Records
Below are the questions our readers ask most often about Florida obituary records, Florida death notices, and how to reach the right office. Each answer is written to help you move forward with your search fast. If your question is not here, please use the contact form on our main site and we will reply.
How do I get an official Florida death certificate?
Order an official Florida death certificate from the Florida Department of Health, Office of Vital Statistics. You can order online, by mail, or in person at the state office in Jacksonville. You will need the full name on the certificate, the date of death, the county of death, and a valid ID. The cost is set by state law and can change each year, so check the current fee on the state website before you order. The office started keeping death records statewide in 1917, so records before that date live only at the county level.
Where can I search Florida obituaries for free?
You can search Florida obituaries for free on FamilySearch, Find a Grave, and the Florida Digital Newspaper by the University of Florida. Legacy.com also lists free Florida death notices from partner funeral homes. For older runs, check your local county library, which often holds free obituary indexes on site.
Can you pull a Florida obituary for me?
No. We are a private research site, not a government office. We cannot pull records, file paperwork, or act on your behalf. We list the right offices, databases, and links so you can do the search yourself. This keeps the site free and fast for everyone.
How do I find Florida newspaper obituaries from the 1800s?
Search the Florida Digital Newspaper Library first. It holds scanned Florida newspapers from the 1800s to about 2010. You can also check GenealogyBank, Newspapers.com, and a chroniclingamerica.loc.gov run for Florida papers. Many Florida county libraries also hold microfilm runs of local 19th-century papers.
What is the difference between an obituary and a death notice?
An obituary is a longer write-up about the person’s life. A death notice is a short paid notice with the name, date, and service times. Florida newspapers print both. Funeral home sites usually print a full obituary plus a short death notice with service info.
How do I report a wrong date or broken link on this site?
Use the contact form on our main site. Include the page URL, the line that is wrong, and the correct data if you have it. We check every report and fix confirmed errors within one to two weeks. We also thank the reader who flagged the issue in our update log.