To find an individual's spouse's name in a birth, engagement, or wedding announcement, or in an obituary, you must at least know the approximate date of the event, the names of either of the individuals involved, and the state and city or town where the event took place (or where the announcement or obituary was likely to have been published). If you do not have the minimum information to access a newspaper article, you can either:

Get help finding some of the minimum information by selecting one of the following items,

Name

Birth date

Birthplace

Marriage date

Marriage place

Death date

Place of death

click the Back button on your browser to return to the list of other places where you can find an individual's spouse's name, or

read the paragraphs below for a few additional tips.

Finding spouses' names

If you are unable to locate an obituary for the individual, try locating obituaries for the individual's parents. Obituaries usually list all the names of an individual's surviving children, and the surviving children's spouses may be listed as well.

Try looking at gravestones and cemetery records for the children and the spouse whose name you know. They are likely places to find information about an individual's spouse. For help locating cemeteries and cemetery records, see the topic Locating cemeteries and cemetery records.

Make sure to check photo albums, scrapbooks, diaries, and family Bibles at home. See the topic Finding information at home for more information. Also check for local histories. See the topic Finding previous research.

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