Warren Tribune Chronicle Obits Uncovering The Past Honoring The Present

Finding and Reading Obituaries in the Warren Tribune Chronicle

The Warren Tribune Chronicle is a daily newspaper based in Warren, Ohio, covering Trumbull County and the surrounding area. Their obituary section is one of those resources that quietly becomes indispensable. I found myself relying on it more than once when trying to track down family history or verify dates for people who lived in the area. The paper has been around since 1820, which means their archive goes back pretty far if you know where to look. The obituary page itself is usually buried somewhere in the back of the print edition or under the news section on their website. What I noticed right away is that they don't put all the obits online. Some are print-only, which is a real pain if you're doing research from out of state. I spent about three weeks trying to find an obit for my great-uncle through the online archive only to discover the entry existed but wasn't digitized. The workaround was calling the editorial office directly. They put me in touch with someone who could pull the print version and read it over the phone. That's probably the fastest method if you're in a hurry. For the ones that are actually online, the format is fairly standard. Name, age, date of death, a short bio, and surviving family members. Sometimes there's a photo. Usually there's not. The details you get online tend to be abbreviated compared to the print version, which sometimes includes longer life summaries or even full church service information. If you're doing genealogy work, that printed version is worth more than gold. I recommend requesting a photocopy through the library if you can't make it there in person.

The Trumbull County Public Library has microfilm and digital access to the Tribune Chronicle going back to the early 1990s. Before that it gets spotty. I tried using the newspaper's online search tool for something from 1987 and got nothing useful. The library's microfiche collection filled the gap, though you have to schedule a visit. You can't do it remotely. One thing people miss is that the obituaries sometimes reference cemeteries and funeral homes in ways that become useful later. I tracked down a death certificate by following a funeral home name mentioned in an obit, then used that to get the exact burial plot. That chain started with a three-paragraph notice in the Tribune Chronicle that most people would scroll past. The cemetery turned out to be in Williamsboro, which isn't even in Warren proper, so that detail mattered. If you're looking for a specific person and the obit isn't turning up, try searching by the funeral home instead. People in this area tend to use the same few places over generations. R.H. Dorrance Funeral Home in Warren comes up a lot. So does Miller-Palmese. Once you have the funeral home, you can often find related records through them directly.

The website itself has some search features but they're basic. You can filter by date range and keyword, but the interface hasn't changed in years and it breaks sometimes. I've had search results return zero entries when I knew for a fact an obit existed on that date. Refreshing or narrowing the date range by a few days usually gets you past whatever glitch is happening. There's also a paid archive option through Newspapers.com and Ancestry. Those services have the Tribune Chronicle indexed but not completely. I'd say maybe 70 to 80 percent of the obits are available digitally through those platforms. The rest you still have to chase down through the paper or the library. It depends on how far back you're going and how much patience you have. One edge case I ran into involved a name change. The person was listed under a married name in the obit but under a maiden name in every other record I'd been looking at. I nearly gave up until I noticed the spouse's name in the surviving family section. Cross-referencing that with a census record cracked the whole thing open. Pay attention to the family list, even the parts you think are irrelevant. That's where the useful hooks usually are.

If you want to submit an obituary or find contact information for the editorial desk, the Tribune Chronicle's main number is listed on their website. They don't publish a direct obituary editor email, which is frustrating but standard for smaller papers. Calling during business hours gets you the quickest response. Expect to leave a voicemail if you hit them after five.