| by Nancy Brister |
Old newspapers can provide a treasure trove of information for genealogists:
birth announcements, weddings, baptisms, visits from out of town family
members, illnesses, obituaries, memorials, notices of families relocating; and,
also, notices of probate and estate settlement, tax lists, unclaimed mail and
much more.
Thousands of articles from historical newspapers have been transcribed and are
available on a variety of different kinds of websites. Some of these are
subscription, but others, such as the ones below, are free.
In addition to online resources, here are some other suggestions you might find
helpful:
- Historical and genealogical societies sometimes have newspapers on microfilm
or can help direct you to other sources.
- Check county courthouses, many have copies of local newspaper editions. One
of the courthouses I visited had every edition of the local paper back to the early
1800's!
- State departments of archives and history almost always have some newspapers
on microfilm. (See link to U.S. Newspaper Program below.)
- Be sure to contact local newspaper offices, they may have a morgue of all of
their published papers.
- Libraries are another possible source, especially large university libraries.
Following are links I've found helpful in my search for old news.
- THE OLDEN TIMES
- OLD NEWSPAPER COLLECTIONS PROJECT
- ROOTSWEB archives of the "Old Newspapers" mailing lists for the U.S., Go to
Rootsweb's homepage; click Mailing List index; choose a state and under
miscellaneous, look for the "Old Newspaper" list for that state..
- USGenWeb Archives include records of all kinds, including information obtained
from newspapers. USGenWeb hosts websites for both states and counties; from
their main page, choose the state, then county, and check the county site for
newspaper article transcriptions.
- Historic American Newspapers is at the Library of Congress
- Obituaries Help - Resource for obituaries and genealogy.
- U.S. NEWSPAPER PROGRAM, lists links to websites of participants involved in
this project.
- SEARCH ENGINES - Do a web search for the area in which you are interested;
many library, county and personal websites include newspaper transcriptions. I
found a few sites by doing a search for "old news + Texas." Here are some good
search engines:
- GOOGLE'S GENEALOGY SEARCH ENGINE
- IXQUICK
- SOOPLE
- ALL THE WEB
- OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT
- IRELAND OLD NEWS
- GEN-UKI newspapers from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
- 18TH CENTURY AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS, Library of Congress
- HISTORICAL TEXT ARCHIVE contains old articles and, also, e-books.
- NEWSPAPER INDEXES, ARCHIVES
- HOME TOWN NEWS - Links to all known current daily/weekly U.S. newspapers -
can lead you to the name of a newspaper in an area
distant from you.
- NEWSPAPERS.COM - Worldwide database for newspapers.
- HISTORY BUFF - Primary source material.
- NATIONAL DIGITAL NEWSPAPER PROGRAM is an ongoing attempt to transcribe
and microfilm historical newspapers. In the next several years, 30 million
newspaper pages will be online and fully searchable.
birth announcements, weddings, baptisms, visits from out of town family
members, illnesses, obituaries, memorials, notices of families relocating; and,
also, notices of probate and estate settlement, tax lists, unclaimed mail and
much more.
Thousands of articles from historical newspapers have been transcribed and are
available on a variety of different kinds of websites. Some of these are
subscription, but others, such as the ones below, are free.
In addition to online resources, here are some other suggestions you might find
helpful:
- Historical and genealogical societies sometimes have newspapers on microfilm
or can help direct you to other sources.
- Check county courthouses, many have copies of local newspaper editions. One
of the courthouses I visited had every edition of the local paper back to the early
1800's!
- State departments of archives and history almost always have some newspapers
on microfilm. (See link to U.S. Newspaper Program below.)
- Be sure to contact local newspaper offices, they may have a morgue of all of
their published papers.
- Libraries are another possible source, especially large university libraries.
Following are links I've found helpful in my search for old news.
- THE OLDEN TIMES
- OLD NEWSPAPER COLLECTIONS PROJECT
- ROOTSWEB archives of the "Old Newspapers" mailing lists for the U.S., Go to
Rootsweb's homepage; click Mailing List index; choose a state and under
miscellaneous, look for the "Old Newspaper" list for that state..
- USGenWeb Archives include records of all kinds, including information obtained
from newspapers. USGenWeb hosts websites for both states and counties; from
their main page, choose the state, then county, and check the county site for
newspaper article transcriptions.
- Historic American Newspapers is at the Library of Congress
- Obituaries Help - Resource for obituaries and genealogy.
- U.S. NEWSPAPER PROGRAM, lists links to websites of participants involved in
this project.
- SEARCH ENGINES - Do a web search for the area in which you are interested;
many library, county and personal websites include newspaper transcriptions. I
found a few sites by doing a search for "old news + Texas." Here are some good
search engines:
- GOOGLE'S GENEALOGY SEARCH ENGINE
- IXQUICK
- SOOPLE
- ALL THE WEB
- OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT
- IRELAND OLD NEWS
- GEN-UKI newspapers from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
- 18TH CENTURY AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS, Library of Congress
- HISTORICAL TEXT ARCHIVE contains old articles and, also, e-books.
- NEWSPAPER INDEXES, ARCHIVES
- HOME TOWN NEWS - Links to all known current daily/weekly U.S. newspapers -
can lead you to the name of a newspaper in an area
distant from you.
- NEWSPAPERS.COM - Worldwide database for newspapers.
- HISTORY BUFF - Primary source material.
- NATIONAL DIGITAL NEWSPAPER PROGRAM is an ongoing attempt to transcribe
and microfilm historical newspapers. In the next several years, 30 million
newspaper pages will be online and fully searchable.