Finding a specific piece of information about someone who passed away in a small town can feel like a scavenger hunt. Honestly, it’s frustrating when you're just trying to find a service time or a bit of family history and the search results keep sending you to generic, national websites that don't know the difference between Tell City and Terre Haute.
Tell City Indiana obituaries are a primary record for the community in Perry County. Because it’s a tight-knit river town, these records often contain much more than just dates. They’re full of stories about Swiss heritage, work lives at General Electric or the chair factories, and weekends spent on the Ohio River.
If you're looking for someone right now or doing some deep-ancestry digging, you've basically got three main paths to take.
Where the Recent Records Live
Most folks start their search because they need to know about a funeral happening this week. In Tell City, two main funeral homes handle the vast majority of local services. They update their websites almost immediately when a family approves a draft.
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- Zoercher-Gillick Funeral Home: Located on 12th Street, they’ve been a staple in the community for decades. Their online tribute walls often feature very detailed life stories. For instance, recent entries like that of Todd Gayer, who passed in early 2026, show how the community uses these pages to share photos and memories that might not make it into the printed paper.
- Huber Funeral Home: They serve Tell City and Cannelton. Their website is a solid resource if you’re looking for someone from the surrounding Perry County area. They recently handled services for Sharon Shreve in January 2026, and their digital archives go back several years, which is handy if you missed the original announcement.
Don't just look for the text. These sites often include video tributes or "Life Stories" that are way more personal than a standard death notice.
The Perry County News and Digital Archives
The local newspaper, the Perry County News, has been the "paper of record" here forever. While the physical paper comes out weekly, their digital presence is where the SEO-friendly obits live. But here’s a tip: if you’re looking for someone who passed away decades ago, a simple Google search might fail you.
The Perry County Public Library is the real MVP for researchers. They have a massive digital archive that covers newspapers and yearbooks from the late 1800s up through the 1970s and beyond.
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Why the Library Archive is Better
- Searchability: You can search by maiden names, which is a lifesaver for genealogy.
- Context: You get to see the actual newspaper page, so you see what else was happening in Tell City that week.
- Accuracy: These are scans of the original records, not transcribed data that might have typos.
If you’re a serious history buff, check out the Browning Genealogy database. It’s an incredible tool for Southwestern Indiana that connects records across county lines—handy since many Tell City residents have ties to Evansville or Owensboro hospitals.
Understanding the "Tell City" Style of Obituaries
You’ve probably noticed that obituaries from this part of Indiana are... thorough. It’s a cultural thing. You’ll rarely see a three-line notice. Instead, you'll find mentions of:
- Tell City High School graduation years (the "Marksmen" pride is real).
- Retirement from places like Abbey Press or Corn Island Shipyard.
- Specific church memberships, particularly St. Paul Catholic Church or the Evangelical United Church of Christ.
Acknowledging these details isn't just sentimental; it’s a vital part of verifying you have the right person. In a county where surnames like Goffinet, Kellems, and Bolin are everywhere, those tiny details about where someone worked or where they went to school are the only way to tell different branches of the family tree apart.
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Actionable Steps for Your Search
If you are currently searching for Tell City Indiana obituaries, here is the most efficient workflow to get what you need:
Check the Funeral Home sites first. 90% of the time, the info you need for a current service is on the Zoercher-Gillick or Huber sites. They are more current than the newspaper.
Use the Library's Obituary Index. If you are looking for someone from the 1950s-1990s, the Perry County Public Library website has a dedicated "Obituary Index" that saves you from scrolling through microfiche.
Search by "Maiden Name + Tell City." If you're hitting a brick wall with a female ancestor, many older local records indexed women under their husband's names (e.g., "Mrs. John Smith"). Searching the maiden name in the keyword field of the digital archive often bypasses this issue.
Verify with Cemetery Records. If the obituary doesn't list a burial site, check Greenwood Cemetery or St. Mary's Cemetery records. Most Tell City families have been using these two for generations, and their offices can often provide the specific dates you need to find the matching obituary.