Finding a specific tribute in the obituaries El Paso Times section used to mean getting newsprint ink all over your fingers while leaning over a kitchen table. Today? It’s a bit different. Whether you’re trying to track down an old friend’s service details or you're deep in the weeds of a genealogy project about your Great Aunt Maria who lived in Chihuahuita, the process has moved largely into the digital ether.
Honestly, local obituaries are the heartbeat of a city’s history. In a place like El Paso, where families have roots going back centuries across both sides of the Rio Grande, these notices aren't just names and dates. They are tiny biographies. They tell us who worked at ASARCO, who volunteered at the food bank for thirty years, and who was known for making the best tamales in the lower valley.
Where to actually look for El Paso Times obituaries
You've got a few main paths here. If you are looking for someone who passed away within the last week or so, your best bet is the official partnership between the El Paso Times and Legacy.com.
Most people just Google the name, but that can be messy. Legacy is the primary host for the newspaper’s current death notices. It’s updated daily. You can search by first and last name, but here is a tip: don’t be too specific with the dates if you aren’t 100% sure. Sometimes a notice doesn’t run until a few days after the actual passing because the family is still getting the details together for the service at places like Sunset Funeral Homes or Martin Funeral Home.
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Digging into the archives
What if you’re looking for someone from 1985? Or maybe 1920?
That is where things get interesting. The El Paso Times has been around since 1881. Back then, it was a four-page weekly started by Marcellus Washington Carrico.
For the old stuff, you basically have three choices:
- GenealogyBank: They have digitized a massive chunk of the historical archives. It isn't free, but if you are doing serious research, it’s the most efficient way to see the actual newspaper scan.
- The Portal to Texas History: This is a godsend. It’s a project by the University of North Texas. They have thousands of pages of the El Paso Morning Times from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It's free and searchable.
- El Paso Public Library: Specifically the Main Branch downtown. They have microfilm. Yes, it’s old school. Yes, it’s a bit tedious. But sometimes the digital OCR (the tech that reads the text) misses a name because the original paper was wrinkled. Looking at the microfilm never fails.
How the process works in 2026
Submitting an obituary isn't as simple as just emailing a paragraph to the newsroom. These days, the El Paso Times handles this through their advertising or classifieds department.
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Costs vary. It's kinda expensive, to be real. Most newspapers charge by the line or by the inch. If you want to include a photo—and you should, because people remember faces—that adds to the price.
Most families let the funeral home handle the submission. It’s one less thing to worry about during a really hard week. But you can do it yourself if you want total control over the wording. Just watch out for the deadlines. If you want a notice to appear in the Sunday print edition, you usually need to have everything finalized by Friday morning. Sunday is still the most popular day for people to check the physical paper.
Why do people still pay for these?
In the age of Facebook and free online memorials, why spend hundreds of dollars on a newspaper notice?
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It’s about the record.
When you publish in the obituaries El Paso Times section, you are placing that person into the permanent historical record of the city. Libraries archive it. Historians 50 years from now will find it. A social media post can disappear if an account is deleted. A newspaper archive is forever.
Plus, there’s the community aspect. El Paso is a "big small town." People who worked with your grandfather 40 years ago might not be on your Facebook friends list, but they probably still scan the paper or the Legacy site to see who has passed.
Tips for a successful search
If you’re struggling to find a specific person, try these strategies:
- Search by initials. Especially in the early 1900s, many men were listed as "J.W. Smith" rather than "John William Smith."
- Look for the husband’s name. It sounds outdated, but for a long time, women were often listed as "Mrs. Robert Garcia" in the headline.
- Check the El Paso Herald-Post too. Until the late 90s, El Paso had two major daily papers. If a notice isn't in the Times, it might be in the Herald-Post archives.
- Try common misspellings. Names like "Rodriguez" or "Gonzalez" are often misspelled with an 's' instead of a 'z' in old digital indexes.
Actionable Next Steps
If you need to find a recent obituary, go directly to the Legacy.com "El Paso Area" page and use the filter for the last 30 days. If you are starting a family history project, start with the free Portal to Texas History to see if your ancestors show up in the early 1900s editions. For those needing to place a new notice, contact your chosen funeral director first; they usually have a direct portal to the El Paso Times system which can save you a lot of administrative headaches.