NEWSPAPER RESOURCES FOR GENEALOGISTS

Note: this will also be posted as a static Page under the RESOURCES TAB to make it easy to find.

If you haven’t availed yourself of Newspapers to fill in tidbits of you ancestors lives you could be in for a real treat. Everything from recitals to accidents to winning prizes in the County Fair. This is an announcement of the death of my 3rd great grandmother Sarah Milton RUTAN BENJAMIN MOSIER 8 Jun 1891 Near, North Bend, Dodge, Nebraska, USA.

Or here is another of my 3rd great grandparents in this case Daniel Coates, whose prize winning Ice cream melon weighing in at 49 pounds and 13 1/2 ounces, appeared in the Daily Nebraska Press October 13 1875

Or my 2nd great grandfather takes a tumble:

And finally my 2nd great Grandmother Catherine Adeline STEWART MURPHY MOSIER the proprietress of the City Hotel in North Bend, Nebraska.

In addition to articles about your ancestors, or mentions in passing, newspaper articles can tell stories about what was happening locally during their lifetimes. Articles about plagues, famines, wars and local happenings are rich with local detail.

The biggest sources are usually available through subscriptions. Many offer a free trial period and by the month or longer subscriptions.

HOW TO SEARCH

This is much art as science. To find a collection, not listed: try Search Terms: __________ digital newspaper archive. So if you are looking for Military Newspapers try “Military Digital Newspaper Archive” that will yield this library of Congress page https://guides.loc.gov/stars-and-stripes-us-military-newspapers/digital-resources

Here are some actual some hints to searching within a collection:

• All variations of a name may be used. Including nicknames, Mrs —-, Granny —-, Initials ie: CJ Jones
• Be careful on restricting your search to places you know your ancestor lived.
• Use quotations marks “James L. PADEN” to restrict your search. Try alternatives “J. L. PADEN”, “James PADEN” and in this case I knew his nickname “Louie PADEN”
• Be careful with time frames for your search. Maybe your ancestor died in 1875. But is mentioned 25 years later in the obituary of his daughter.
• Unusual surnames help. Locales help.
• But you want to try every different combination. I found wonderful fairly recent articles on my ancestors, like Stephen RAMSBURG, because he is mentioned in the history of a tract of Land in Maryland. SO just because your ancestor lived a hundred years ago or more he still may be mentioned more recently.

SUBSCRIPTIONS $$$$

• Newspapers.com: (can be included in an Ancestry Subscription)
• Newspaper Archive
• British Newspapers via Find My Past
• OldNews.com from MyHeritage.

FREE

Some of the larger National sites

• Library of Congress: Chronicling America : Select, representative newspapers across the US
• Purdue University Free Newspapers by State : lists of links by state
• Fulton County NY Free archives: 105 Old Newspaper pages from US & Canada
• Community History Archive
• Digital Archives of the Green Free Library
• The Ancestor Hunt : Lists many links by state and country
• Historical Indigenous and Native American Newspapers Online
• Historic U.S. Newspaper Pages Now Available from Advantage Archives
• Free Online Obituary and Obituary Index Collection Links from the U.S.

SELECTED STATE NEWSPAPER LINKS

More are available in the links above. This is to give you an idea. You can also search collections in major universities in States or communities that you might be interested.

• Alabama Civil War & Reconstruction Newspapers
• California Digital Newspaper Collection
• Massachusetts Historic Newspapers
• Michigan Newspaper Archives
• Minnesota Digital Newspapers
• Nebraska Digital Newspaper Collection
• New York Historic Newspapers
• Ohio Memory Collection
• Pennsylvania Historic Newspaper Archive
• Historic Oregon Digital Newspapers
• Texas Newspaper Collection
• Utah Digital Newspapers
• Virginia Newspapers

WORLD

• Trove – over 23.8 million pages from Australia
• Canada Online Historical Newspaper Links
• Europe Free Online Historical Newspapers
• German Newspaper Collection (From Germany):
• Swedish Digitized Newspapers: freely-available-for-all in Swedish
• Swedish Language papers in US
• Norwegian Digitized Library includes Newspapers

SPECIFIC SUBJECT

• Historical Indigenous and Native American Newspapers Online
• Historical African American Newspapers Online
• The Catholic News Archive
• US Military Newspapers
• Historical Japanese Internment Camp Newspapers Online
• Historical American Farming Newspapers Online
• Historical American Labor and Union Newspapers Online
• American Railroading Periodicals from the Library of Congress

The same general principals can be used for searching magazines and other periodicals.

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