Finding your ancestors in old newspapers

Dave Moriarty

Genealogical Computer Society of Georgia

Saturday Feb 12, 2011

@

The Roswell Family History Center

Roswell, Georgia

Finding your ancestors in old newspapers

STRATEGY

1) Select a place and time of interest for one or more ancestors

2) Determine what newspapers were published then and there

3) Identify which ones, if any, are searchable online or locally

4) Search for your ancestor’s information…

a. via free/low-cost on-line or local sources

b. with free/low-cost help from others

c. via more expensive high-probable-yield sources

5) Visit remote newspaper archive, if necessary

Finding your ancestors in old newspapers

MEDIA

METHODS on-line telephone microfilm paper

1) News search engines x

2) Request library help x x

3) Browse newspapers x x x

Finding … old newspapers - Sources

Library of Congress Newspapers

Chronicling America: Newspaper Directory DIRECTORY

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers FULL TEXT

Finding … old newspapers - Sources

Galileo Newspapers DeKalb Library PortalGeorgia Newspaper Project LIMITED TEXT

NewsBank Obituaries FULL TEXT

Finding … old newspapers - Sources

NewsBank Newspaper Resources

NewsLibrary Newspapers (1977-2001) FULL TEXT

GenealogyBank Historical Newspapers (1690-2007) FULL TEXT

Finding … old newspapers - Sources

Google News Archives (1758-2011) FULL TEXT

Footnote's Historic Newspaper Archives (1785-2011) FULL TEXT

Finding … old newspapers - Sources

Godfrey Memorial Library www.godfrey.org/

NewspaperArchive (1753-2011) FULL TEXT

Times of London (1785-1985) FULL TEXT

Finding … old newspapers - Sources

Selected Newspaper Archives 

AJC Historic Archives (1868-1945) FULL TEXT

NYT Archives (1851-2011) FULL TEXT

Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1841-1902) FULL TEXT

Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise (1998-2011)FULL TEXT

Irish Newspaper Archive (1763-2011) FULL TEXT

Finding … old newspapers - Sources

Ancestry.com Newspapers FULL TEXT

Family History Center Catalog CATALOG

FreeNewspaperArchives www.FreeNewspaperArchives.us

Highbeam www.highbeam.com

Lexis-Nexis www.lexisnexis.com

WorldVitalRecords www.WorldVitalRecords.com

Finding … old newspapers - Sources

The United States Newspaper Program

www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html

A cooperative national effort among the states and the federal

government to locate, catalog, and preserve on microfilm

newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth

century to the present.

Funding is provided by the National Endowment for the

Humanities. Technical assistance is furnished by the Library of

Congress.

Finding … old newspapers - Sources

Open Access Book

The fourth estate: contributions towards a history of

newspapers, and of the liberty of the press (1850)

www.archive.org/details/fourthestatecont00huntuoft

Author: Hunt, Frederick Knight, 1814-1854

Publisher: London D. Bogue

Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT

Finding … old newspapers - Sources

www.byub.org/ancestors/records/newspapers/intro.html

How to Find Your Ancestor in an Old Newspaper

Bringham Young University Broadcasting

 

http://genealogy.about.com/cs/newspapers/a/news_research.htm

Family History in the News

How to Find & Use Newspapers for Genealogical Research

Kimberly Powell, About.com Guide

Finding … old newspapers - Sources

Historical Newspapers Online University of Illinois Website

International Coalition on Newspapers Newspaper digitization projects

Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers Blog

World Association of Newspapers wikipedia Website  

WikiPedia: Newspaper

WikiPedia article: History of newspapers and magazines

WikiPedia article: List of the earliest newspapers

Finding an old news article: concluding tips

• Be systematic & plan your search step-by-step

• Search free and low-cost datasets first

• Search online, call, or visit distant local & specialty libraries

• Explore online lists & discussion groups for newspaper sources and help

• Incorporate quotes, stories, poems, lyrics, pictures in your histories

• Cite relevant sources in your work

• Enjoy the hunt!!! You’re going to find something very interesting!

The End