Finding a specific notice in the concord monitor obits nh isn’t always as straightforward as a quick Google search makes it seem. Honestly, if you’ve lived in Merrimack County for any length of time, you know the Monitor is basically the historical record of the region. It’s been around since 1864. But today? The digital shift has made things a bit messy. You might find a snippet on a social media feed, a full tribute on Legacy.com, or a paywalled archive on the newspaper’s own site. It's kinda frustrating when you’re just trying to find service times or send flowers.
People often assume every death in New Hampshire shows up here. Not true. In NH, there is zero legal requirement to publish an obituary in a newspaper. It’s a choice families make, and increasingly, a pricey one.
The Reality of Concord Monitor Obits NH Today
Let’s talk money. This is usually what surprises people the most. Placing a standard notice isn't exactly cheap. As of now, the baseline for a paid obituary in the Concord Monitor is roughly $274 for the first 210 words. That includes a photo or a veteran’s flag, which is a nice touch, but if you have a long life story to tell, that bill climbs fast. You’re looking at about $25 for every additional 30 words.
For a family grieving, doing the math on word counts is the last thing they want to do.
But there is a bit of a silver lining. The Monitor does something most papers don't: they don't charge for obituaries of individuals aged 17 and younger. It’s a small, compassionate policy in a business that has become very transactional.
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Where to Look (and Why It’s Confusing)
If you are searching for someone, you basically have three main paths.
- The Official Website: The Concord Monitor has its own "Obits" section. It's updated daily.
- Legacy.com: This is where the actual "Guestbook" lives. If you want to leave a comment or see photos shared by the family, you’ll likely end up here.
- NewsBank: This is the heavy hitter for deep research. If you’re looking for a relative who passed away in, say, 2004, the standard search won't help much. You need the NewsBank archive, which covers from October 2002 to the present.
I’ve seen people get stuck because they can’t find a name that should be there. Sometimes it’s just a delay. It can take about an hour for a newly uploaded obituary to sync across the various platforms. Other times, it's just the spelling. Seriously, check the maiden names.
Genealogy and the Deep History of Merrimack County
New Hampshire is a dream for genealogists, but the concord monitor obits nh records are the "secret sauce" for local history. If you are doing serious digging, the Concord Public Library is your best friend. They maintain an obituary index that goes all the way back to 1948.
Think about that for a second. That's decades of records that pre-date the internet.
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The library also has access to HeritageHub, which is a specialized database for U.S. obituaries. If you have a library card, you can often access these from your couch. It’s a lot better than microfilm, though there’s something oddly satisfying about cranking those old machines in the basement of the library on Green Street.
Common Mistakes When Placing a Notice
If you’re the one writing the notice, the pressure is real. You don't want to mess up the surviving siblings' names or get the service time wrong. The deadline for the Monitor is generally 1:30 p.m. for the next day's paper. Miss that, and you’re waiting another 24 hours.
Sorta important to remember: they no longer offer free engagement or anniversary announcements. It's all paid content now.
Watch out for these specific slips:
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- Verification: The paper or Legacy will often contact the funeral home to verify the death. If you're doing a "private party" submission (meaning no funeral home is involved), be ready for extra vetting.
- Service Details: Always double-check if the service is at a church or the funeral home. In Concord, people often confuse the two, especially with places like Bennett Funeral Home or Waters being so established.
- Donations: If you're asking for "in lieu of flowers," make sure the charity's URL is actually correct. Broken links in a printed paper are a permanent headache.
Why the Local Paper Still Matters
You might wonder why anyone bothers with a print obituary in 2026. Social media is free, right? Sure. But Facebook posts disappear into the "algorithm" after six hours. A notice in the Monitor becomes part of the permanent record of New Hampshire.
It’s about the "Pulitzer" level of quality the paper has aimed for historically. Remember Preston Gannaway? She won a Pulitzer for the Monitor in 2008 for a photo series called "Remember Me," which was an intimate look at a local woman's life and death. That’s the kind of storytelling this paper is known for.
When you search for concord monitor obits nh, you aren't just looking for a date of death. You're looking for the story of a neighbor.
How to Find What You Need Right Now
If you're currently trying to track down a service or a bit of history, start with the recent listings on the Monitor's site. If it’s older than a few months, hop over to the library's digital portal. If you’re trying to place an ad, call the dedicated obits line at 603-369-3233 during weekday business hours.
Next Steps for Your Search:
- Check the Concord Public Library’s online index if you are looking for a death between 1948 and 2015.
- Use the NewsBank database for full-text articles and notices from 2002 to today.
- Verify the funeral home's website directly; often they post the full obituary for free before it even hits the newspaper's site.
- Contact the Monitor's obituary editor at
obits@cmonitor.comif you need to make a correction to a recently published notice.