Accessing Historical Obituaries From The Meridian Star
The Meridian Star has been publishing obituaries since the late 1800s, and pulling records from that archive requires understanding a few practical hurdles most people run into immediately. I spent years digging through these records for family history research and genealogy projects, and the process is more straightforward than most people expect once you know where to look and what to do when the digital record goes missing. The primary starting point is the Meridian Star's own website at meridianstar.com, which maintains an obituary search tool. They archive obituaries going back roughly fifteen years online with full text searchable by name, date range, and sometimes by funeral home. For anything older than that window, you're entering the territory where digitization becomes spotty and physical archives take over. The Meridian-Star Publishing Company maintains microfilm and bound volumes at the Mercury-Hill Branch Library and the Lauderdale County Courthouse, both in Meridian, Mississippi. I learned early on that the online search tool at meridianstar.com has significant limitations. It often misses obituaries that were originally printed as part of a larger Sunday section or that were later moved to the archives without being properly tagged. I spent two full days searching for an obituary that I knew had been published because my grandmother had physically cut it out and kept it in a shoebox. The online search returned nothing. The workaround was to use the library's microfilm reader directly, cross-referencing the known death date with the newspaper's page numbers from that era. It took about forty-five minutes once I was at the microfilm reader.
For pre-1970s obituaries, the Meridian Star's collection becomes increasingly fragmented. Many early twentieth-century editions were not properly archived and were pulped during space reclamation in the 1980s. The records that survived are mostly on microfilm at the Lauderdale County Public Library system. There's a finding aid compiled by the library staff that indexes obituaries from 1889 through 1960 by surname. It's handwritten in places, which means some entries are ambiguous. I recommend photographing the index pages rather than relying on memory when you're flipping through them. GenealogyBank's Newspaper Archive section does carry Meridian Star content, but the coverage is incomplete and often delayed by several months compared to the actual publication date. The subscription costs around ninety dollars annually. If you're only researching one or two families, that might not be worth it. If you're doing comprehensive regional genealogy work across multiple Mississippi publications, the subscription pays for itself in the time you save compared to physical archive visits. The database search interface is functional but clunky. Boolean operators work, but the date range selector sometimes returns results outside the bounds you specify, which I've found to be a persistent bug in their system. Another angle that people overlook is the funeral home records. The Meridian Star typically receives obituary submissions directly from funeral homes in the area. Establishments like Rabb Funeral Home, McNeely Memorial, and Boren-Blackwell Funeral Home have maintained their own records going back decades. These records often include information not printed in the obituary itself — service details, surviving relatives who weren't listed in the newspaper version, and sometimes personal anecdotes that were submitted but not published. I once found a complete family tree through a funeral home file that filled in seven missing generations for a client's research. The funeral home won't release everything without a death certificate or proof of kinship, so bring documentation if you go in person.
The Mississippi Department of Health maintains official death records, and obituaries don't always align perfectly with the official death certificate data. I've encountered cases where the newspaper obituary listed a different birth date than what appeared on the death certificate, sometimes due to the family providing incorrect information to the funeral home, sometimes due to transcription errors in the newspaper. If accuracy matters for your research, always cross-reference both sources. The death certificate is the legal record; the obituary is a tribute that may contain errors. For researcher efficiency, I'd suggest this workflow. Start with the online Meridian Star obituary search to establish a baseline. Note any gaps where you expect records to exist but don't find them. Then visit the Lauderdale County Public Library and consult the microfilm collection with the finding aid in hand. Bring a notebook and a camera. After that, contact the relevant funeral homes if you need information that the newspapers don't contain. Finally, pull the official death certificates from the state health department for the people you're researching. This sequence usually takes a full day if you're efficient, or two days if you're thorough. The online-only approach leaves you with incomplete records about half the time. The biggest mistake people make is assuming that every Meridian Star obituary is digitized and searchable online. It isn't. A significant portion of the paper's obituary history exists only in print or microfilm format. The library's reading room is open Monday through Friday, eight to five. Microfilm equipment is available at no charge. Parking is free in the rear lot. The staff there are knowledgeable but understaffed, so go early in the week if you can.
Get the Full Details
If you're researching someone who died after 2008, the online archive should cover it. Before 2008, expect to do physical archive work. Before 1970, assume the record may not exist at all. The preservation practices of the mid-twentieth century newspaper industry were not what they are today, and a lot of material was lost during routine cleanup operations. Don't waste time searching for something that was never preserved. Check the finding aid first, then the microfilm, then move on if it's not there.
