How to know if someone has passed away in the U.S.

Wanting to know if someone is dead may sometimes not be a simple question. However, many online programs, websites, tools, etc. can now be used to check whether someone has died and when, without having to call others or visit them in person.

Since public announcements are usually made in obituaries and websites, it is relatively easy to find out if someone is dead. However, for most ordinary people, what may not be found is how the person died, and this information is usually only passed on by word of mouth.

How to know if someone is dead

  1. Read online obituaries. To find death information, you should first check the death report. Such obituary sites have the latest death information and historical records.

    Search for John Smith on the Legacy.com obituary site

    Online obituaries may only be useful for larger cities. A small town may not post an obituary online, in which case you should check the local newspaper or death website.

  2. social media. If you can find the social media account of the deceased, you may find that their friends and family have posted emotional and memory posts.

    Learn how to find someone on Facebook

    Facebook search results John Smith Dallas

  3. Visit the local church website. If you happen to know the church where the funeral is held, or if the person passes away, the funeral will be held, then the church’s website may have posted a short or even complete obituary for the person.

    If you are not sure which church it is, look up the church website link for the area where the person was or died.
  4. existsearch enginePerform a regular search on. Enter the person’s name, and then enter an obituary or death keyword.

    Contain any other relevant information that can be used, such as the names of family members, the place of life or death, occupation, guesses about the cause of death, etc.

    This is an example:

    "John Smith" death accident "Las Vegas" "Wife Mary" ("john smith" death accident "las vegas" "wife mary")

    Note: If there are multiple words in the phrase (such as name or location), use quotation marks to search.

    Google search: John Smith obituary

    Note: If you’re looking for a celebrity, but the regular search doesn’t help, just go toWikipediaorIMDbSearch on it. These are the best sites to see if a celebrity has died or has been updated recently.

  5. Check local news sites. It is very common to report deaths in the news, but only in the case of "abnormal" deaths (including car accidents, murders, etc.) can they be detected by luck.

    Combined with the other techniques on this page, this method of checking whether someone is dead can be helpful. Usually news sites do not allow the name of the deceased to be posted, but usually provide the location and date/time.

  6. Find the person’s cemetery to confirm whether they have passed away. But this is not the preferred option, because the cemetery is usually not updated immediately after the obituary is issued, but they are still useful, especially if someone suspects that someone may have died for a long time.

    Find John Smith's grave search results

  7. Check if there is information about this person on the genealogy website. If the date of death is included in the family tree since his death, the person’s date of death can be found.

  8. Use the "search engine" to see if he or she is dead. This method has the least value, because these sites usually don’t focus on death, but may display the person’s date of death, as well as information they previously retained, such as date of birth, phone number, address, etc.

Can you know someone is dead

Determining the cause of someone's death can be tricky. Apart from asking close friends or relatives, the only option is to search for specific details in the death record.

If the above method does not work for finding whether it is dead or dead, then change your mind: use the network search method in step 4, for example, search "Cause of death"(cause of death). 

The answer may be difficult to determine

Usually, information about how someone died, etc., will only appear on the Internet or in places that can be publicly accessed if the news has a certain news value. For example, if the person is a celebrity, died unfortunately or was involved in other events, this information may surface.

For example, a few days ago, Hong Kong comedian Wu Mengda tragically passed away, news websites and various social media are reporting.

However, for everyone who died like colleagues, old friends, family members, neighbors, etc., the cause of death is usually not public information, so it is difficult to find.

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