Ontario County Obituary Records Search
Obituary records for Ontario County are maintained through local town clerks, the Ontario County Clerk in Canandaigua, and the Ontario County Archive Center. The county clerk manages deeds, mortgages, census records, naturalization files, divorce decrees, and military discharges. Death certificates and obituary research in Ontario County draw on both these government records and local newspaper archives from the Finger Lakes region. The Archive Center offers online search features that make initial research possible from home before visiting in person.
Ontario County Clerk's Office
The Ontario County Clerk, Jean Chrisman, is at 20 Ontario Street, Canandaigua, NY 14424. The phone number is (585) 396-4200. The clerk's office manages a wide range of county records including deeds, mortgages, census records, naturalization files, divorce decrees, and military discharges. While the clerk does not issue death certificates directly, the records held here can support obituary research in several ways.
Divorce decrees filed with the Ontario County Clerk may contain references to deceased spouses. Military discharge records sometimes note the date and cause of death for veterans. Census records can help place individuals in Ontario County at specific points in time. Naturalization records include birth dates and family information. All of these can fill gaps when obituary records alone do not tell the full story.
Ontario County Archive Center
The Ontario County Archive Center holds historical records for the county and provides online search features. This is a valuable starting point for anyone researching Ontario County obituary records from home. The archive contains historical documents, maps, and records that the clerk's office has transferred for long-term preservation.
The online search tools let you look up records before making a trip to Canandaigua. Not everything is digitized, but enough material is available online to help you plan a productive research visit. The archive staff can also respond to written inquiries about specific Ontario County records.
Death Certificates in Ontario County
Death certificates in Ontario County are filed with the local town or city clerk where the death took place. Under Public Health Law § 4140, each local registrar maintains these records. The New York State Department of Health also holds copies of Ontario County death certificates.
Certified copies from the state cost $30 under Public Health Law § 4174. You must be a qualified applicant with a direct and tangible interest. This includes spouses, children, parents, and legal representatives. For genealogy research, uncertified copies may be available for older Ontario County records. Local clerk fees may be lower than the state fee.
When requesting an Ontario County death certificate, provide the full name of the deceased, the date of death, and the place of death. If you do not know which town the death occurred in, the state health department can search across all of Ontario County. Mail requests to the state take several weeks. Local clerk offices may process requests faster for walk-in visitors.
Newspaper Obituaries in Ontario County
Canandaigua and the surrounding Finger Lakes communities have had local newspapers for well over a century. The Daily Messenger has covered Canandaigua and Ontario County for generations. Obituaries from these papers are a primary source for death information beyond what appears on a death certificate. Funeral announcements, family listings, and burial locations all appear in newspaper obituaries.
Local libraries in Ontario County hold newspaper archives on microfilm. The Wood Library in Canandaigua has local history materials that include newspapers. FamilySearch and Ancestry both carry digitized New York death indexes that include Ontario County entries. Fulton History, a free website, has digitized some upstate New York newspapers that cover the Ontario County area. FindAGrave contains burial records from Ontario County cemeteries.
For recent deaths, funeral homes in Ontario County post obituaries on their own websites and on Legacy.com. These online listings tend to include more detail than the newspaper version. The New York State Archives in Albany holds statewide death indexes on microfiche that include Ontario County deaths along with all other New York counties.
Surrogate Court and Probate Records
The Ontario County Surrogate's Court handles probate matters for the county. Will filings and estate proceedings typically include the date of death, names of heirs, and the last address of the deceased. These records are public. Anyone can visit the court and review probate files. For Ontario County obituary research, probate records can supplement or replace missing obituaries, especially for individuals whose deaths were not covered in local newspapers.
Church records from Ontario County congregations also hold death and burial information. Many churches in the Finger Lakes region kept their own registers before civil registration became standard. These records are scattered across individual parishes and diocesan archives. The Ontario County Historical Society may be able to point researchers to the right church records for their area of interest.