How I Use Historical Newspapers for Genealogy
Sometimes, as genealogists, we want to put more life to an ancestor’s life other than names and dates. They aren’t personal to us until there’s a story behind that data. One of the tools that I use to bring stories to an ancestor’s life is by using historical newspapers. Now we use newspapers for a variety of reasons. Sometimes I only need them to find an obituary. Other times I need them to show a prominent person’s life in the community. While at other times I need them to clear up a conflicting family story. Whatever the reason, newspapers are an essential tool for genealogy.
Find Historical Newspapers for Free First
If you’re not familiar with this phrase, then here it is, “Always pick the low hanging fruit first.” Ok, I don’t know who said it, but the point is do the easy stuff first. When you want to search for newspapers, then find the free stuff first because that’s the easiest way. Some of the websites that offer free newspaper searches are
- Chronicling America
- Google Newspapers
- Elephind.com
- Individual States websites
- Individual Newspaper Companies
- Historical Societies
- Public Libraries
- Local community Pages
Many of the paid newspaper websites also have free trials or free days where you could search their entire website or for certain events for free. This only works if you have the time to wait for these days to open. I usually have clients who are paying me to find their information now instead of waiting for a free day. So this option only works if I’m doing my personal family tree.
Then Use Paid Websites
So when I’m using the newspapers for a client, then I personally start with Ancestry.com first because it’s the easiest way for me to do a broad search. Of course, if you have access to MyHeritage or FindMyPast, then use those as well. If I don’t find it there, then I dive into my paid newspaper website, which is NewspaperArchive.
I resisted a paid newspaper website for the longest time because I felt that I didn’t use it enough to justify the money. However, I noticed that some clients have ancestors where I find a ton of newspaper articles for and others that I don’t find any. So as of right now, I use the paid website when I have more clients and I unsubscribe to it when I have months with no clients. This works well for me right now until my client base grows to having this paid website full time.
Paid websites that I trust are
I’m sure there are more newspaper websites out there because this is a fast growing area for genealogy. However, these are the major players in my circle of influence. Therefore, I’m sharing what I know.
Another great source for finding newspapers online is the Family Search Wiki Page for Unites States Newspapers. It has links to several places that I haven’t mentioned here. So go check it out!
Conclusion
Finding historical newspaper articles for your ancestors is simple. It does take time, but the steps to use newspapers are few. So take advantage to the many options that you have to find your ancestor in historical newspapers.
In the meantime…good luck and happy hunting!
Tiffany
P.S. For other articles about storytelling or gathering family stories, then check out my blog posts below
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