I can look for obituaries from 1850 to the present.

Several newspapers were published in Springfield MA between the mid 1800’s and the late 1900’s. I have access to microfilmed copies of these newspapers. These include the Springfield Daily News, the Springfield Union, and the Springfield Republican. Only the Republican is still published today.

Since about 1950 or so, the Springfield newspapers now report deaths primarily from towns in Hampden County only. I do not have local access to newpapers for Hampshire or Berkshire Counties.

Please be aware that none of the newspapers are indexed by name, so I must have the exact date of death to locate an obituary.

Also, be aware that, up until the early 1900’s, few ordinary citizens had an obituary; for most people, a brief death notice appeared in the paper, such as this example:

"Henry A. McMahan, age 62, died Wednesday at his home. Funeral Friday at 2 PM at his home at 101 Westminster Street."

In the 1800's, the kind of obituaries we are used to seeing today were generally reserved for prominent people. I will gladly look for obituaries in newspapers from the 1800’s, but please understand that what I find may be just a death notice, which is often of little value to genealogy research. Also, unlike today, not everyone who died had a death notice published in the newspaper.