Are you looking for Des Moines obituaries and death records? While this is very useful in researching a family name, you are actually limited in what you can find when you search only for basic information. Des Moines obituaries, unlike death records, contain detailed information about the person's life - not just the name and date of death. In fact, Des Moines, IA newspaper articles originally published Iowa obituaries. A fairly recent phenomenon is the archiving of these Des Moines obituaries, first through microfilm, and then through online databases.
Des Moines obituaries include personal information on the character of the deceased and the accomplishments to his/her name. For example, Des Moines, Iowa obituaries might reveal to you that the subject was born in 1957, and that she had four siblings. Des Moines, Iowa obituaries further detail where the woman in question grew up, attended schools and worked.