Searching for a Farmington Daily Times obituary shouldn't feel like a chore. Honestly, it used to be way easier. You’d just walk to the porch, grab the paper, and flip to the back. Now? It’s a digital scavenger hunt that sometimes leads to dead ends or paywalls.
People die. It’s the one thing we all do. But in San Juan County, the record of those lives—the stories of the oil field workers, the Navajo weavers, the teachers who spent forty years at Farmington High—is getting harder to pin down as local media shifts. If you’re looking for someone specific right now, you’re likely dealing with the "digital gap" where old print archives haven't quite met the new online databases.
Where the Farmington Daily Times Obituary Lives Now
The Daily Times is part of the USA Today Network (Gannett). That matters because it dictates exactly how you find a Farmington Daily Times obituary. They’ve basically outsourced their memorial pages to Legacy.com.
Most people start at the newspaper’s website. You click "Obituaries," and it teleports you to a branded Legacy page. This is fine for someone who passed away in the last three to five years. It’s searchable. You can type in "Smith" and "Farmington" and usually get a hit. But here’s the kicker: if the family didn’t pay for the digital upgrade, that record might be sparse. Some entries are just a name and a date. Others are full-blown life stories with photo galleries.
If the person passed away before the mid-2000s, the website is probably going to fail you. The internet has a short memory. For those older records, you’ve gotta go old school. The Farmington Public Library on 24th Street is the gold standard here. They keep microfilm. It sounds ancient, but it’s the only way to see the actual scan of the page from 1974 or 1988. They have the Daily Times dating back to its early days as a weekly.
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The Cost of Saying Goodbye in San Juan County
It’s expensive. Let's be real.
Writing a Farmington Daily Times obituary isn't a free service provided by the paper. It’s classified advertising. Families often get sticker shock when they realize that a long, heartfelt tribute can cost hundreds, sometimes over a thousand dollars. This is why you’re seeing a massive shift toward "social media obituaries." People just post a photo on Facebook and call it a day.
This creates a problem for historians and genealogists. If it’s not in the paper of record, did it happen? Legally, yes. But for the community memory of Farmington, Aztec, and Bloomfield, those missing stories leave a hole. Local funeral homes like Brewer, Lee & Larkin or Farmington Funeral Home often host their own versions of the obituary on their websites. These are free for the family and usually stay up indefinitely.
Pro tip: Always check the funeral home’s site first. They usually have more photos and a guestbook that isn't behind a newspaper's paywall.
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Navigating the Archive Maze
Sometimes you're not looking for a recent loss. You’re doing a family tree. Maybe you’re trying to find an ancestor who lived through the 1950s oil boom.
- Start with the Farmington Public Library. They have an obituary index. It's a lifesaver. It’s a database that tells you exactly which issue and page the name appears on.
- Check the New Mexico State Library. Based in Santa Fe, they have massive digital collections, though they focus more on statewide impact.
- Ancestry and FamilySearch. These sites scrape the Farmington Daily Times obituary data, but there’s often a lag.
- Find A Grave. This is a volunteer-run site. It’s not an "official" obituary, but users often upload clippings of the actual newspaper notice.
Why the Format Matters
The way an obituary is written in the Daily Times has changed. Back in the day, you’d see very formal language. "Preceded in death by..." or "Departed this life..." Nowadays, people write them like letters. They mention the deceased's favorite fishing spot at Navajo Lake or their obsession with the Farmington Scorpions football team.
This shift makes the Farmington Daily Times obituary a cultural document. It tracks the evolution of the city. You can see the names of the old businesses that don't exist anymore—places like the Chief Drive-In or old trading posts. When you read an obit from thirty years ago, you're reading a map of a Farmington that’s mostly gone.
Troubleshooting Your Search
Can't find what you need? It happens.
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First, check the spelling. Seriously. Transcription errors are rampant in digital archives. If "Thompson" doesn't work, try "Thompston" or just "Tompson." Also, search by the spouse's name. Often, a woman’s obituary might be indexed under her husband’s name in older records (e.g., "Mrs. Robert Miller"). It’s frustrating and dated, but that’s how the archives were built.
Another thing: the Farmington Daily Times isn't the only game in town. Depending on the era and the person’s background, the notice might have been in the Navajo Times or even the Albuquerque Journal if the person was a prominent figure or died in a hospital there. San Juan County is a bit of a crossroads. People move between Farmington, Durango, and Gallup constantly.
Actionable Steps for Finding or Placing a Notice
If you are currently trying to locate a Farmington Daily Times obituary or need to publish one, here is exactly what you should do to get it right.
- To find a recent one: Go straight to the Daily Times website and use the "filter by date" tool. If nothing pops up, Google the person's name followed by "Farmington funeral home." Most local homes (Cope Memorial, etc.) post the full text before the newspaper even prints it.
- To find an old one: Use the Farmington Public Library’s online catalog or call their reference desk. They are surprisingly helpful and can often tell you if they have the specific year you're looking for.
- To publish one: Prepare your text in a Word doc first. Keep it concise to save money, but don't cut the essentials—full name, age, town of residence, and service details. Contact the Daily Times advertising department directly. If you're working with a funeral home, they usually handle the submission for you, which saves you the headache of formatting it for the paper's specs.
- For Genealogy: Look at the "San Juan County NMGenWeb" project. It’s a volunteer site that has transcribed thousands of records from the Four Corners area. It’s often more accurate than the big corporate sites because the people running it actually live in New Mexico and know the local names.
The reality of local news is that it’s shrinking. Newspapers aren't as thick as they used to be. But the Farmington Daily Times obituary section remains a vital piece of the community's fabric. It’s the final word on a life lived in the high desert, and even if the platform changes from paper to screen, the need to remember doesn't go away.
Make sure you save a digital copy of any obituary you find. Link it to a cloud drive or print it out. Digital archives can disappear overnight if a company decides a database isn't profitable anymore. In a place like Farmington, where history is buried in the layers of the soil and the archives of the press, keeping those records alive is up to us.