Obituary
An obituary is an editorial or family-supplied account of a person's life. It may include relatives, work, interests and service information, but its length and factual detail vary.
Death or funeral notice
A death notice or funeral notice is usually shorter and may focus on the death, service, burial and family acknowledgements. In the UK, Ireland and Australia, these terms are often more useful search phrases than obituary.
Memorial or in memoriam
A memorial page or in memoriam notice commemorates a person and may be published after the original death announcement. Community-contributed memorials should be checked against original sources.
Civil death record
A civil death record is created by a government registration system. It can establish official facts but normally does not provide the biographical narrative of an obituary.
Which should you search first?
Use recent notice and funeral-home sources for a recent death. Use newspapers for narrative detail, civil or burial records to confirm facts, and genealogy databases to connect multiple historical collections.