At one time Sussex County belonged to Pennsylvania, and its records go back to the late 17th century. Many Sussex County families can trace their origins to the Eastern Shore of Virginia or Maryland. The work at hand, which spans the period 1826-1849, is based upon a Sussex County obituary book that was discovered in Lewes, Delaware, in 1954 and subsequently given to the DAR Library in Washington, DC.

Arranged in a tabular format, the inscriptions, in most cases, specify the decedent’s name, age, and date of death. Many of the entries also indicate a decedent’s family member(s), occupation, cause of death, or other particulars. Fully indexed, this book identifies over 2,000 residents of Sussex County, Delaware, who died during the period in question.