Newspaper

Resource Links

• Community History Archive provides a map with links to old digital newspaper across the country

Overview

I still remember our first trip to the library. We were on a mission to learn anything we could about my grandfather. It was our first steps in what has become a long journey. My wife and I drove downtown to the main library in search of the microfilm machines to research city directories and old newspapers.

Having located the large filing cabinets with the various tapes, the next set of challenges was learning how to feed the tape (not getting it upside down) and finding a machine that had a working printer.

It was quite exciting, for the first time looking at old documents. It really pulled us into the process. Before long we were not just looking for my grandfather but were looking up other family members as well. We printed everything we found and quickly burned through the hand full of change we brought.

We probably made every rookie mistake you could on that day. When we got home we had a bunch of printouts but in our hurry we did not make any notes. The printouts, were helpful, but without knowing the dates and/or newspaper name they were not as helpful. Also we looked at dozens of dates and multiple newspapers and had not made any notes on which dates had no information.

Lesson learned – make notes – bring lots of dimes – never use the machine on the end of the row that does not feed the tape properly!

Over the years our library has upgraded the microfilm machines and while you can still print a copy they also have options to store digital images on a thumb drive and/or email a digital image right from the machine.

Since that day we have spent many hours in libraries and multiple cities and states researching our family, but we also use online digital newspapers when possible.

Over recent years, a large number of folks, both private individuals and companies and have placed a significant effort into scanning old newspapers. Because of their efforts, there is a wide range of sources covering different geographic areas and time periods which you can search from home.
As with other genealogy resources, some are free and others require a fee.

The best place to start is with the local city/county library. They will have good insight to which local historic digital newspapers are available on-line and likely free while on premise using the Library computers. They also can help you find the microfilm for those newspapers that have not yet been scanned.

Type of Information

Birth announcement, marriage announcements, death notices, passenger records, police notices and many other helpful insight can be found in old newspapers.

The older newspapers included much more detailed personal information than a current newspaper. For example as the newspaper covered WWII it is not uncommon to see detailed information including name, city and sometimes street address.

I have always found it interesting to search the street address of my past homes and relatives homes. You can find some interesting things you might not have known. For example I searched my great grand mothers home address and I found the a notification of a marriage for her that we otherwise would have never found. As it turns out she filled for the notification but never completed the marriage so the document was difficult to find using traditional methods. Using historic newspapers and home address found a document that would have otherwise been tricky to find.

Below is a table with links to a variety of historic and current digital newspapers. In some cases the links are to a large aggregated list (by state) and in other cases it is to the direct provider of the newspapers.

To use the table, enter a state name (full wording of state name and not just the two digit state code) and press search. This will bring up the short list of sites that we selected relevant to the particular state. In the table you will see notation of Historic or Current and a column showing the provider name. The leave our site and open up the listing select “click to open”.

How is the helpful

My experience is that newspaper research filled in missing pieces and kept me going. For example, for my great grandmother newspaper research gave me the name of a new person in her life that I would not have otherwise found. The newspaper can also narrow or refine your future research. You might find an obituary that indicates a persons maiden name or state of residence which then points you in a new direction.

Guide Books

• Guidebook –
• Guidebook –

Related Resources

• Public Records – Home Page

External Resources

• Newspaper Ancestry.com
• Newspaper FamilySearch.org
• Newspaper Elephind.com
• Newspaper Wikipedia.org
• Newspaper MyHeritage.com