Free Obituary Template

Trying to write an Obituary without a roadmap?  This free obituary template is worth its weight in gold in helping you make the writing of it as easy as pie.

An obituary is the notice or announcement of the death of the deceased that is placed in the newspaper and often on the funeral home's website.  It is a way to let people know of the death.  

It is common for people to use more than one newspaper to publish the death of the deceased,  particularly if they lived in another part of the country for a portion of their life.

There is no stead fast rule to the length of an obituary.  More and more families are adding an abbreviated life history of the deceased, including some significant accomplishments of their life.    Just remember the more content you add to the obituary,  the more the obituary will cost.  Some choose to instead add these mini biographies to the funeral program.  Another option is to place a shorter version in the newspaper and a longer obituary on the funeral home's website

Not every obituary includes the cause of death, but this is something that most people want to know.  The decision whether or not to include the cause of death, depends on the family wishes.

It is recommended to have several family members or friends, proof read the obituary for things that might have been overlooked.  For example it is easy to omit the name of one of the family members.

Often a current photo is included in the obituary.  If the deceased is elderly some prefer to use a photo from  their youth.  Others include two photos; one taken in their youth, and  the other a recent photo.

Obituary Photos

Free Obituary Template

Name:____________________________________________________

Year of Birth:_______________________________________________

Place of Birth:______________________________________________

Date of Death:______________________________________________

Parents' Names:_____________________________________________

Spouse's or Significant Other's Name:______________________________

Children's Names (and Spouses): Often the spouse's name is put in brackets.

________________________________________________________

Grandchildren's Names:_______________________________________

Brothers and Sisters:__________________________________________

Education:_________________________________________________

Employment:_______________________________________________

Organizations and Memberships:_________________________________

Awards, Honors, Achievements:__________________________________

Date, time and location of service (and Visitation if there is one)____________

Additional Information: You may want to include cause of death, description of the deceased's character. ______________________________________

________________________________________________________

Charitable Request: Some prefer in lieu of flowers a donation to a cause that was important to the deceased._____________________________________

Some like to end the obituary with a quotation.  For example;

'Say not in grief 'he is no more' but live in thankfulness that he was'

See Examples of a Basic, Standard and Creative Obituary  - click here.

Mistakes To Avoid When Writing An Obituary

Our free obituary template, will ensure that you don't make some very serious mistakes when writing the obituary. Otherwise you may unknowingly enable credit fraud scam artists to rip off your loved one's identity.

The most despicable of crimes, it is happening regularly, where these crooks scan the obituaries for information.

Don'ts;

• Don't include the actual day and month of birth. Only use the year.
• Don't put the address in obituaries. Aside from preventing identity theft, you don't want thieves to visit the house, helping themselves while you're at the funeral.
• Don't  include the mother's maiden name; people often use this for passwords

Do's;

I know you have tons of things to think about at this time, however please take the time to do the following, to help prevent the identity theft of your loved one:

• Promptly notify the Social Security Administration of the death.
• Mail copies of the death certificate to all three credit-reporting bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — and all credit issuers to cancel accounts right after the person dies.
• Contact Motor Vehicles to cancel any driver's license and prevent duplicates from being issued.
• By law, you are entitled a free credit report from all three main bureaus every year. Several weeks following the death, use this service — at www.annualcreditreport.com — to run a credit report on the deceased to ensure there's no suspicious activity.

Obituary Programs:

View our selection of one-of-kind obituary programs for the funeral:

Examples of Obituaries

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