Death is quiet, but the paperwork is loud. Honestly, if you've ever tried to track down a specific person's history in Washington County, you know the struggle. You're likely here because you need to find Forest Lake Times obituaries, and you've probably realized it isn't always as simple as a quick Google search.
It’s messy. Sometimes names are misspelled. Other times, the digital archive doesn't go back as far as you'd hope.
The Forest Lake Times has been the heartbeat of this corner of Minnesota for a long time. It’s more than just a paper; it's a ledger of who lived here, who worked the farms, and who built the businesses along Highway 61. When someone passes, their obituary in the Times is often the final, definitive word on their life. But finding those records requires knowing where the bodies—well, the files—are buried.
The Digital Gap in Forest Lake Times Obituaries
We live in a world where we expect everything to be indexed. It isn't.
If you are looking for a recent passing, say within the last five to ten years, you're usually in luck. The Forest Lake Times, which is part of the APG Media of East Central Minnesota group, keeps a relatively clean digital record. You can go to their website, hit the "Obituaries" tab, and scroll.
But here is the catch.
Digital migrations happen. When newspapers change website platforms or ownership, old links break. You might find a snippet of a 2012 obituary on a search engine, click it, and land on a "404 Not Found" page. It’s frustrating. It feels like a second loss.
For anything older than the mid-2000s, you are almost certainly going to have to step away from the keyboard. Or at least change how you use it.
Where the Paper Lives Now
Most people don't realize that local libraries are the actual gatekeepers of these records. The Forest Lake Public Library (part of the Washington County Library system) is your best friend here. They keep microfilm. Yeah, that old-school, spinning-reel stuff that makes your eyes hurt after twenty minutes.
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It’s reliable.
Unlike a server that can crash or a company that can go bankrupt, microfilm just sits there. If you are looking for Forest Lake Times obituaries from the 1970s or 80s, you’ll likely find them indexed at the Washington County Historical Society or via the Minnesota Historical Society’s "Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub."
The Hub is a godsend, frankly. They’ve been painstakingly scanning old issues of the Times (and its predecessors) for years. You can search by keyword, which is a lot faster than manually cranking a wheel in a dark basement.
Why These Records Are Different From Ancestry or Legacy
You’ve seen the big sites. Legacy.com, Ancestry, Find A Grave. They’re fine. They’re "okay."
But they lack the local flavor. A national obituary aggregator might list the date of birth, the date of death, and maybe the funeral home. That’s it.
A Forest Lake Times obituary is different. It’s written for neighbors. It mentions that the deceased was a member of the Faith Lutheran Church for fifty years. It mentions they coached the local little league team in 1994. It lists the maiden names of sisters who moved to Wyoming thirty years ago.
This is "hyper-local" data. If you’re doing genealogy, these details are the difference between a name on a chart and a real person you can visualize.
The Cost of Remembering
Let’s talk money. It isn’t free to print an obituary anymore.
Decades ago, a death notice was often a news item. Now? It’s paid content. This has changed the way obituaries are written in the Forest Lake Times. Families have to pay by the word or by the inch. Consequently, some families choose to write very short notices to save money, while others write sprawling biographies.
If you can’t find a detailed obituary, it might not be because the person wasn't important. It might just be because the family couldn't justify a $400 charge for a column of text. In these cases, you have to look for "Death Notices," which are the tiny, one-paragraph blurbs that just give the bare essentials.
How to Search Like a Pro
If you’re striking out, you’re probably being too specific.
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Names change. People go by nicknames. "Robert" becomes "Bob." "Elizabeth" becomes "Betty." If you're searching the Forest Lake Times obituaries database and getting zero results, try searching for just the last name and the year.
Also, look for the "survivors" section. Sometimes the person you're looking for is mentioned in their spouse's or parent's obituary. This is a common "side-door" strategy for researchers.
Real Places to Look
- The Washington County Library System: They have access to databases like "NewsBank" which often includes full-text articles from the Times.
- Minnesota Historical Society: Their "Digital Newspaper Hub" is growing. It currently holds thousands of pages of Minnesota history.
- Local Funeral Homes: Roberts Family Funeral Home and Mattson Funeral Home are the two big players in the Forest Lake area. Their websites often host archives that predate the newspaper’s current digital system.
Sometimes the paper isn't the primary source anymore. Funeral homes have become their own publishers. They host the guestbooks, the photos, and the full-length life stories. If the Times archive is failing you, check the funeral home’s site directly.
The Weird Quirks of Small Town Records
Forest Lake is a specific place. It’s a hub for Scandia, Columbus, and Wyoming.
Often, a person might have lived in Wyoming, Minnesota, but their obituary was published in the Forest Lake Times because that was the "big" paper for the area. Don't limit your search strictly to the city limits of Forest Lake.
There's also the "City of Lakes" factor. Sometimes people confuse the Forest Lake Times with papers in other states. There’s a Forest Lake in Pennsylvania, too. Make sure you aren't looking for a Smith in Susquehanna County when your Smith lived on the shores of the North Shore Trail.
What if the Obituary Never Ran?
It happens. Not everyone gets an obituary.
If a family didn't have the funds or if there was no surviving family to write one, the record might simply not exist in the newspaper. In that case, you’re looking for a "Report of Death" or a "Social Security Death Index" (SSDI) entry.
You can also check the county's probate records. If there was a will or property involved, there’s a legal trail in Stillwater (the county seat). It’s not as poetic as an obituary, but it’s a factual record of a life ended.
Actionable Steps for Your Search
Stop clicking the same three broken links. If you need to find a specific Forest Lake Times obituary, follow this workflow:
- Start with the Funeral Home: Search the websites of Mattson or Roberts Family Funeral Homes first. They are free and usually have more photos than the newspaper.
- Use the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub: If the death occurred before 2010, this is your best bet for a scanned image of the actual paper.
- Call the Library: Seriously. Librarians in Forest Lake are used to this. They can tell you exactly which years are on microfilm and might even do a quick search for you if you're out of state.
- Check the "Obituary Extra" sites: Sometimes sites like Tributes or Legacy pick up the feed from the Forest Lake Times even if the newspaper's own site is being glitchy.
- Verify with the County: If you need it for legal reasons, contact the Washington County Vital Records office. An obituary is a story; a death certificate is a fact.
Finding these records is about persistence. It's about recognizing that local history is stored in fragments. You might find a name in the paper, a photo at the historical society, and a grave marker at Lakeside Cemetery. Piece them together. The information is out there, but it rarely hands itself to you on a silver platter.
Don't give up if the first search fails. Typos in original printings are more common than you'd think. Try variations of the name, and always check the weeks following the date of death, as delays in printing were common in the pre-digital era.