Finding information in a small town can sometimes feel like trying to find a specific needle in a very large, very disorganized haystack. If you’ve been searching for Kittanning Leader Times obits, you probably already know that the digital trail isn’t always a straight line. Maybe you’re looking for a recent notice for a friend, or perhaps you’re deep in the weeds of a genealogy project trying to find out where great-uncle Arthur ended up.
Honestly, the Leader Times—which has been the heartbeat of Armstrong County news since the 1960s—doesn't always make it obvious where the archives live. You'd think everything would just be one click away in 2026, but local newspapers have gone through so many ownership changes and digital migrations that things get messy.
Where the Recent Records Actually Live
If you are looking for someone who passed away in the last week or month, your best bet isn't actually a Google search for the paper itself. It’s the funeral homes. In Kittanning, most families work with a few local staples. Snyder-Crissman Funeral Home and Bauer Funeral Home are the big ones.
They usually post the full text of the obituary on their own websites before the newspaper even ink-dries. It’s faster. It’s free. And frankly, the formatting is usually much easier to read than the mobile version of a news site.
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But if you need the official record—the one that appeared in the print edition of the Leader Times—you have to look at the regional hubs. Because the paper is part of a larger media group, many of its death notices are fed into Legacy.com or the TribLIVE obituary section.
Digging into the Archives
Now, if you’re doing the "family tree" thing, the search gets a bit more intense. We’re talking about a paper that has documented life in Kittanning, Ford City, and New Bethlehem for decades.
If you need something from the 70s, 80s, or 90s, you aren't going to find it on a standard news feed. You’ve basically got three real options:
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- GenealogyBank: They have a pretty solid digitized run of the Leader Times from about 1964 through the mid-90s. It’s a paid service, but it’s the most "human-readable" version of the old pages.
- Ancestry.com: They have the "Simpson's Leader-Times" collection. It’s a bit hit-or-miss depending on the specific year, but for Armstrong County research, it’s a goldmine.
- The Armstrong County Public Library: This is the "boots on the ground" method. If you live near Kittanning, they have microfilm. It's old school. It smells like vinegar. But it’s the only way to see the original layout, the photos, and the tiny details that digital OCR (optical character recognition) often messes up.
Names are tricky. I’ve seen "Kittanning" spelled three different ways in old digital archives. When you’re searching for Kittanning Leader Times obits from twenty years ago, try searching just by the last name and the year. Don't put too many filters on it or the search engine might get confused and tell you nothing exists when it’s actually sitting right there.
Dealing with the "Pay-to-Play" Reality
Let’s be real for a second: submitting an obituary in the Leader Times isn't cheap. In 2026, the cost of print space is high. Most local papers charge by the word or by the inch. I’ve seen notices cost anywhere from $100 to $500 depending on how much of the "life story" you want to tell and whether you include a photo.
Because of these costs, some families are opting for "Death Notices" instead of full "Obituaries."
A death notice is basically just the facts: name, date, service time.
The obituary is the story: the hobbies, the grandkids, the fact that they made the best apple pie in the county.
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If you’re searching for a record and can’t find a long article, look for the "Death Notices" section. It might be a tiny three-line entry, but it’s the legal record you need.
The Semantic Confusion
One thing that trips everyone up is the name. People often search for the "Times Leader," which is a completely different newspaper in Wilkes-Barre. If you’re looking for Kittanning info, make sure you have the word "Leader" first or include "Armstrong County." Otherwise, you’ll spend an hour reading about people from the other side of the state.
Getting Results: A Quick Checklist
If you are stuck, here is exactly what I would do, in this order:
- Check the Funeral Home Website: Search "Snyder-Crissman" or "Bauer Funeral Home" Kittanning.
- Use the Exact Date: If you know the day they died, search "Leader Times" plus that date.
- Search Legacy.com: Use the "Browse by Newspaper" function and select the Pennsylvania section.
- Call the Library: Seriously. The librarians in Kittanning are used to these questions. They can tell you if a specific month is missing from the digital record.
The Leader Times remains a vital part of the community, even as the way we read it changes. Whether you're mourning a loss or just trying to connect the dots of your heritage, the information is there—you just have to know which digital door to knock on.
Actionable Next Steps:
If you are looking for a recent obituary from the last 48 hours, go directly to the website of the funeral home handling the arrangements. For historical research older than 1995, sign up for a free trial of a genealogy database or contact the Armstrong County Historical Society to see if they have the specific date indexed. This will save you hours of scrolling through broken links.