Our last Roundtable discussion topic was Newspaper Research. Here is a recap of our discussion and a new site I just learned about.
- Newspaper Finder is a Database for Digitized Newspapers https://newspaperfinder.com/
- Newspapers offer a window into the lives of our ancestors. Suggestions for things to look for in newspapers:
- Obituary
- Professional Notices and Advertisements for Ancestor's business
- Announcements for engagements, weddings, divorces, births
- Stories about parties like wedding showers, birthday parties
- Court Dockets
- Organization Meetings - 4H, card clubs, garden clubs, quilting group, women's organizations, Business Men's Association, fraternal organizations like Odd Fellows, Masons, Elks, etc.
- School - grades, attendance awards, spelling bees, annual school picnic
- Politics - elections, conventions
- Land - real estate, homestead land advertisements, homestead awards, delinquent tax lists
- Shipping News - ships arriving and departing from port cities
- Cemeteries - burial notices, cemetery association meetings
- Religion - church services, tithing, and functions
- Digitized newspapers are searchable using technology like Optical Character Recognition and Artificial Intelligence. The accuracy of the search feature depends on:
- The quality of the newspaper image
- Newspapers made spelling mistakes, search using alternate spellings
- Words were split between lines due to space requirements, search using the first few characters of the word or name
- Titles were used - search on Mrs. John Smith or terms like Dr. or Doctor, Mayor, etc.
- Search on addresses, occupations, business names, or cemetery names
- Keep a list of alternate spellings for Surnames and search on all of them.
- Use wildcards if they are available on the site.
- Alternative Newspapers
- Look for newspapers printed in an immigrants mother tongue.
- Other sources - religious newspapers, school newspapers, business newspapers, organization newspapers.
- Finding Newspapers
- Don't forget not everything is digitized. Search the Library of Congress Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries https://www.loc.gov/collections/directory-of-us-newspapers-in-american-libraries/about-this-collection/
- Use Interlibrary Loan if the newspaper you need hasn't been digitized.
- Google the name of the newspaper.
- U.S. Newspaper Program - beginning in 1982 the National Endowment for the Humanities provided grants to preserve newspapers on microfilm. This website has a list of the institutions that participated from all 50 states. https://www.neh.gov/us-newspaper-program
- National Digital Newspaper Program replaced the U.S. Newspaper Program and now focuses on digital preservation. https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/
- Check Universities, local libraries, local genealogical and historical societies to find newspapers, both online and offline.
- Check the FamilySearch Research Wiki for the location.
- Portal to Texas History https://texashistory.unt.edu/
- Digitized Collections:
- Library of Congress Chronicling America https://www.loc.gov/collections/chronicling-america/about-this-collection/
- Ancestor Hunt https://theancestorhunt.com/
- Elephind https://www.elephind.com/
- Old Fulton History https://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html
- Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_online_newspaper_archives
- Google Newspaper Archive https://news.google.com/newspapers
- FamilySearch Newspaper Search https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/newspapers/
- Smalltown Papers Archive https://www.stparchive.com/landing.php?home=y
- Newspapers.com $ https://www.newspapers.com/
- GenealogyBank $ https://www.genealogybank.com/
- Old News $ https://www.oldnews.com/en
- Newspaper Archive $ (Free access Dallas Public Libraries or the National Genealogical Society Membership) https://newspaperarchive.com/
