Dignity Memorial Obituary Pages: What You Get, What You Do Not Own
The short answer: if the funeral home was part of the Dignity Memorial network, the obituary was probably posted on dignitymemorial.com as part of the arrangements. The page shows the obituary, the service times, a place for friends to "Add a Memory," and a button to send flowers. It is free to visit and to post on, and old pages stay up: obituaries from 2016 are still on the site today. But the page is not yours. The site's terms of service say the company "may preserve or delete User Content at any time and for any purpose," and that you are "not guaranteed access" to it. So use the page for what it is good at, the first few weeks around the funeral, and keep your own copy of the obituary and the messages people leave.
This guide was checked against dignitymemorial.com and its terms of service in November 2026. If the site changes, the terms on the site are what count.
What Dignity Memorial is
Dignity Memorial is a brand name, not a single funeral home. In the site's own words, it identifies "a network of licensed funeral, cremation and cemetery providers that include affiliates of Service Corporation International," the Houston company usually shortened to SCI. The footer says the network has more than 1,900 locations and serves over 375,000 families a year. The website itself is run by SCI Shared Resources, LLC.
That matters for one practical reason: the home you dealt with is local, but the obituary page sits on a national site that the local staff do not run. Corrections go through the funeral home; the rules about the page come from the national company.
What is on the page
Every obituary page we looked at had the same parts:
- The obituary, with the name, dates and the line "In the care of" followed by the funeral home's name.
- Services: visitation, funeral and burial, with dates and places. After the dates pass, they move under "Past Services."
- Add a Memory: "Send a note, share a story or upload a photo." Anyone can post.
- Send Flowers: "Comfort the family with flowers or a sympathy gift." The flowers are ordered through the page and delivered to the service or the family's home.
- Share Obituary and Get Reminders, which lets visitors sign up for service and obituary updates.
The search page says condolences "will remain with the obituary and be included in an available printed memory book." Ask the funeral home whether that book comes with your package or costs extra, and when it is printed. Messages that arrive after it is printed will not be in it.
For the week of the funeral, this is a useful page. People searching the name find it, the times are in one place, and nobody in the family has to build anything.
Who controls it
The funeral home wrote or posted the obituary, so changes go through them. If a name is misspelled, a grandchild is missing, or the service moves, call the funeral home, not the national site. Ask them while the arrangements are still open; it is easier to get an edit made the week of the funeral than a year later when the staff have changed.
Some families also find a second obituary on the funeral home's own website. The 2018 page we looked at ended with "An online memorial can be viewed at" the local home's site. Ask which one the home treats as the main page, so you know where people's messages will land.
What the terms of service actually say
This is the part most families never read. Quoted from dignitymemorial.com's terms of service, sections 6, 9 and 10:
| The terms say | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| "The Company does not claim ownership of User Content." | You still own what you wrote and the photos you uploaded. |
| You grant "a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, copy, modify, display, archive, store, publish… and create derivative works" from it | Once posted, the company can keep using it, and you cannot take that permission back. |
| "We shall have the right in our sole discretion to reject or remove any User Content" | Anything, including a family member's tribute, can be taken down. |
| "The Company may preserve or delete User Content at any time and for any purpose. You also acknowledge and agree that you are not guaranteed access to User Content at any time." | There is no promise the page will be there next year. |
| The company may set terms on "the number of days that memorial postings or other uploaded User Content will be retained" | A time limit can be added later. |
| The company may "modify, suspend, or discontinue the Services… with or without notice" | The site itself can change or end. |
None of this means the page is about to disappear. Old obituaries are clearly still online. It means the page lasts as long as the company decides, and the family has no say in that. Most free pages run by a business work this way; it is worth knowing which kind of page you are relying on.
What to save now
Do this in the first month, while you remember to:
- Save the obituary text. Copy it into a document, or use your browser's Print and "Save as PDF." Keep it with the death certificates.
- Save the memories people post. These are the part you cannot recreate. Print the page to PDF every few weeks while messages are still coming in, and once more after they stop.
- Download the photos people uploaded, especially ones you have never seen. Ask the person who posted it for the original if the page only shows a small version.
- Write down who posted. A name next to a story is how you find the person later and ask for more.
- Ask about the printed memory book, its cost and its cut-off date.
If the family is spread out, give this job to one person. It is a quiet, useful task for the cousin who keeps asking what they can do.
When to make your own page as well
You do not have to choose. A good pattern is to let the funeral home's page handle the funeral, and make a family page for everything after: the photos that turn up in boxes, the stories told at the first holiday, the anniversary messages. Link to the family page from the obituary if the home will add it, and from social media posts.
A family page makes sense when:
- you want a place that grows for years, not a notice that freezes after the service;
- more than one relative wants to add photos and stories;
- you want to choose who can see it (public, a passcode for family, or only you);
- you want it free of flower sales.
| Dignity Memorial obituary page | A family memorial page | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets it up | The funeral home | You |
| Who can edit the obituary | The funeral home | You, and anyone you add as a co-manager |
| What is sold on the page | Flowers and sympathy gifts | Depends on the site; check before you share the link |
| How long it lasts | As long as the company chooses (see the terms) | Depends on the site; read its terms the same way |
| Best for | Service times, the first weeks | Photos, stories and messages over years |
Before you pick a site, ask the same question the terms above answer: what happens to the page if the company changes its mind, or closes? It is not hypothetical. Cake, a planning site with free memorial pages, shut down in 2025 and the pages went with it; we wrote up what families can still recover. CaringBridge has its own rules for what happens to a site after the person dies.
For a side-by-side look at other obituary sites, including Legacy.com and newspaper pages, see our list of the best online obituary sites. If you are still choosing a funeral home and want to know who owns it, our guide to funeral home directories explains how to check. And if you want to see what a finished family page can look like, start with these memorial website examples.
FAQ
Is a Dignity Memorial obituary free? Visiting and posting a memory is free. The obituary itself is usually part of what the family arranged with the funeral home; ask them whether it is included in your package.
Can I change the obituary myself? Not from the public page. Ask the funeral home that posted it to make the change.
How long does the obituary stay online? The site gives no guarantee. Pages from 2016 and 2018 were still online in November 2026, but the terms say content can be deleted "at any time and for any purpose." Save your own copy.
Who owns the photos I upload? You do, according to the terms, but by uploading you give the company a permanent, irrevocable licence to use them.
Can I get the messages people left? The site mentions a printed memory book. Ask the funeral home. Otherwise, save the page to PDF yourself.
GetMemorial gives families a lasting online memorial they run themselves: a place for photos, stories and messages that keeps growing after the funeral. Build yours at GetMemorial.com.
