A death notice is not an obituary, as it only gives the person's name, age, occupation (if known), and location and time of services. The key to using the online Tulsa World database is that the death must have occurred between 1989 and the present, as those years are the only ones included in the database. For prior years, you will need to visit to the Periodicals Department at the Central Library to make a microfilm copy.

  • From the Library's main page, select Research & Learn and then Alphabetical List of Resources.
  • Scroll down to, or select 'T,' from the menu & then click Tulsa World.
  • In the search field enter the person's name as first name [space] last name  and click Enter.
  • A list of results will appear and be forewarned that you may get a variety of articles.
  • Look for articles with Transitions in the article title. For example, Transitions Births or Transitions Deaths.
  • One last trick - if you have too many results, enter the name as John NEAR3 Smith. This will limit the results to those articles that have John and Smith within three words of each other.

A death notice usually appears the day after the death date. However, they can be up to two days later. An obituary may appear on the same day as a death notice, but usually it appears anywhere from a few days later to a week.