Finding a specific piece of history in Venango County often leads to one place: the Oil City Derrick obits. Honestly, if you’ve lived in Northwest Pennsylvania for any length of time, you know "The Derrick" isn't just a newspaper. It’s a record of the families who built the oil industry from the ground up.
But searching for these records in 2026 can be kinda tricky if you don't know where the digital archives end and the dusty microfilm begins.
The Reality of Searching Oil City Derrick Obits Today
The Derrick has been around since 1880. That’s a massive amount of ink. If you are looking for someone who passed away recently—say, within the last few years—your best bet is almost always Legacy.com or the newspaper's own website. They have a partnership that syndicates most local death notices.
But here is the catch: those digital records don’t go back forever.
If you are doing genealogy or looking for a great-grandparent who worked the refineries in the 1940s, a simple Google search might fail you. You’ve basically got three main paths to find what you’re looking for:
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- Paid Databases: Ancestry.com and NewspaperArchive.com have digitized large chunks of the Oil City Derrick (1885–1954 and some later years).
- The Library Route: The Oil City Library (on Central Avenue) and the Franklin Public Library hold the "Holy Grail"—the microfilm.
- Recent Digital Obits: These are usually hosted on the official newspaper site or via funeral home pages like Morrison or Reinsel’s.
Why the 1954 Cut-off is a Big Deal
You might notice when searching sites like Ancestry that there’s a weird gap. The Oil City Derrick officially became just The Derrick in July 1954. Before that, it was the Oil City Semi-Weekly Derrick or the Oil City Daily Derrick.
When you’re looking for Oil City Derrick obits from the mid-century, names often get buried under initials. It was a formal time. You might not find "Mary Smith." You might have to search for "Mrs. John Smith." It’s annoying, but that’s how the records were kept.
Also, remember that The Derrick and The News-Herald (Franklin's paper) eventually merged their operations. If you can't find an obit in the Derrick, check the News-Herald archives. They often shared content but maintained separate death notices for years depending on which side of the river the family lived.
A Quick Tip for Genealogical Researchers
Don't just look for the obituary. Look for the "Card of Thanks" or the "In Memoriam" sections that usually ran a year after the death. Sometimes these small snippets contain names of surviving relatives that the original obituary missed.
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Accessing Archives Without a Subscription
Let's be real: not everyone wants to pay $25 a month for a genealogy site just to find one date.
If you’re local, the Oil Region Library Association is your best friend. They have the Heritage Room. It’s quiet, it smells like old paper, and they have the microfilm readers. You can often get a scan of an old page for a few cents.
If you're out of state, call them. Small-town librarians are often willing to do a quick look-up if you have a specific name and a rough date of death. It beats hitting a paywall every time.
Submitting an Obituary in 2026
If you’re on the other side of things and need to place an obit, it’s not as simple as it used to be. Most families go through their funeral director. The funeral home handles the formatting and sends it to the Derrick's editorial desk.
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Be aware that these aren't free. Long-form obituaries with a photo can cost several hundred dollars depending on the word count. If you’re on a budget, a "Death Notice"—which just lists the name, date, and service time—is usually much cheaper or even free, depending on current paper policy.
What Most People Get Wrong
People assume everything is online. It isn't.
There are massive "dark spots" in the digital record of Oil City Derrick obits, especially in the late 1970s through the 1990s. This was the era before digital typesetting was archived easily but after the "historical" period that most genealogy sites prioritize.
If your search comes up empty online, it doesn't mean the record doesn't exist. It just means it's sitting on a reel of film in a cabinet in Venango County.
Next Steps for Your Search:
- Check Legacy.com first for anything from 2005 to the present.
- Search Ancestry’s "Oil City Derrick" collection specifically for records between 1885 and 1954.
- Contact the Oil City Library if you have a specific date but no digital hit; they can pull the microfilm for the most accurate record.
- Verify the name spelling. In the oil boom days, census takers and reporters were notorious for phonetic spellings of Eastern European last names common in the region.