The Newest Electronic Frontier:

The Newest Electronic Frontier:

Searchable, Scanned Newspapers

email: john@konvalinka.com website: www.konvalinka.com

Updated 30 September 2006

Summary::

Old newspapers are sometimes the major (or ONLY) source of genealogical information for a given locale at a particular time. Genealogical information in local and national newspapers has often lain hidden because most newspapers do not have a complete name (or other) index. It is finally becoming possible to tap into the genealogical riches in many unindexed newspapers because of many recent abstracting and indexing projects and, even more so, because optical scanning has made a reality of online, “every word searchable” access to many newspapers.

Aside from the obituary section, many items of genealogical interest appear in news items, society pages (engagements, weddings, births, “happenings”) and gossip / “who’s visiting” columns, ship arrival and departure information, school graduation notices, “25 [etc.] Years Ago Today” columns, even “help wanted” and other advertisements. Historic newspapers might contain the only surviving record of a court case or related action.

It might also be possible to find photographs of persons and places of genealogical interest. Information which appears in an obituary (such as “Peoria, Illinois papers please copy” can provide valuable clues as to where the person being researched (or members of his family) might have lived. Another reason for the popularity of obituaries in early times: if you were a person who lent money to others, the death of a borrower could alert you to take steps to protect your interests in any will or probate hearings.

As well as “conventional” English language newspapers, remember that special purpose newspapers – regional, military, religious ethnic/foreign language newspapers – might contain a wealth on information about the life and times of your persons, both in this country and in the “old country.” See: http://dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Newspapers/Cultures_and_Groups/

Until recently, the genealogical and related information in newspapers has often lain hidden because most newspapers do not have a complete name (or other) index – and it is not always clear which was the “newspaper of record” for the place or period we might be interested in.

But now it is finally becoming possible to tap into the genealogical riches in many “forgotten” and unindexed newspapers because of many recent abstracting and indexing projects and, even more so, because optical scanning has made a reality of online, “every word searchable” access to many thousands of newspapers.

Newspapers—Old vs. New::

Newer Newspapers often have online or CD-ROM versions which make them easily searchable. See www.world-newspapers.com for a selection of newspapers online.

Newsbank: www.newsbank.com (A subscription site for libraries, “the largest and fastest growing newspaper resource in existence”) has:

Chicago Tribune Morgue clippings file (nearly 3 million) - major stories covering events and issues clipped and indexed by the Chicago Tribune staff at time of publication. Coverage is from the 1920's through 1984.
Front pages (16,614 pages containing over 155,000 articles) - image of entire front page as it appeared when published from the early 1900 through 1984.

ProQuest Newstand www.il.proquest.com/products/pt-product-newsstand.shtml includes many newspapers.

NewsLibrary: www.Newslibrary.com (affiliated with Newsbank) also includes many Newspapers.

Google News Archive Search: http://news.google.com/archivesearch includes many newspapers

Older Newspapers present more of a challenge:

· Which were the newspapers “of record” for the places and time period or our research?

· Where might surviving copies of those papers be located?

· Writing styles and archaic usage ("the 15th inst.") may make searching difficult

· Are there any indexes or other finding aids for these newspapers?

In some cases there are helpful answers to these questions:

· NEH U.S. Newspaper Program: www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html (includes some information on ethnic newspapers).

· The Library of Congress maintains a large collection of newspapers – early foreign as well as U.S.: www.loc.gov/rr/news/17th/178th.html.

· The American Antiquarian Society www.americanantiquarian.org/newspapers.htm is “this nation's chief repository for early American newspapers … published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the United States, Canada, and the English-speaking West Indies.” (In September 2006 the Society, in partnership with Newsbank/Readex announced that many of these newspapers will be available online: www.newsbank.com/press.cfm?press=33) (Newsbank is also creating a new website www.genealogybank.com which will is rapidly adding many digitized newspapers (see Tom Kemp’s 29 September 2006 email posting on the APG mailing list).

To quote from their website: “America's GenealogyBank and GenealogyBank.com are two major releases destined to reshape U.S. genealogical research. They offer digital facsimiles of millions of pages from more than 100,000 books and other historical publications, the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, the complete American State Papers, more than 500,000 issues of over 900 newspaper titles and a wide variety of other government and civilian documents published in all 50 present U.S. states”

· The Pennsylvania Newspaper Project: www.world-newspapers.com/pennsylvania.html

· The Kentucky Newspaper Project: www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html#Kentucky

· The Illinois Newspaper Project – “to identify and preserve the state’s rich cultural history and heritage through its newspapers”: www.library.uiuc.edu/inp.

· The Newsplan project of Ireland www.nli.ie/ca_newsplan.htm provides a listing of all extant files of all Irish newspapers held in The National Library of Ireland, The British Library and other repositories.

· The New York Times has published obituary and other indexes for various periods.

· Some local libraries maintain obituary and other indexes for newspapers which serve their areas.

· Some individuals have produced indexes of newspapers in their area:

One example: INDEX TO CENTRAL NEW JERSEY NEWSPAPERS:

Political Intelligencer & New Jersey Advertiser 1783-1786

Times and New Jersey Union 1859-1868

New Brunswick Daily Times 1872-1876

A compilation by Michael Brown 39 Eastern Drive Kendall Park, NJ 08824 Tel. 732-297-0594 of obituaries, marriages, injuries, accidents, arrests, social clubs and other significant local and regional items of interest.

Another example: “For more than twenty years, Charles (Cummings) single-handedly indexed the [Newark, New Jersey] Star-Ledger when no one else would, leaving us a record of that newspaper-of-record that even by itself should earn him a permanent place of honor in our community.” (email commemorating Cummings’ death on December 22, 2005)

Major New Developments for Older Newspapers: :

Abstracts (in addition to those published in book form in works such as "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey … Extracts from American Newspapers, Relating to New Jersey,"

· Newspaper Abstracts: www.newspaperabstracts.com “Newspaper Abstracts goal is to become your complete resource for family history research using newspapers”.

· Members of the National Genealogical Society can get access to online abstracts of the National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), 1800-1850: www.ngsgenealogy.org/intelligencer/intelligencer.cfm.

· The U.S. (and international) GENWEB projects, hosted by RootsWeb www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb has abstracts of genealogical significance from newspapers in many geographic areas.

· An example of a volunteer newspaper transcribing project: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~djnsl/RepOb/RepObHome.html 1880's newspapers from Richland County, Wisconsin.

· Ireland Newspaper Abstracts: www.irelandoldnews.com has a large number of abstracts from many 19^th century Irish newspapers. While these are not directly searchable by surname, over 2,000 individual abstracts have been posted to the newsgroup soc.genealogy.ireland by members of TIARA (The Irish Ancestral Research Association, http://tiara.ie/index.html) and these ARE searchable through the TIARA website (http://tiara.ie/search.htm) and through www.Google.com newsgroup archives.

· The New England Historic Genealogical Society www.EnglandAncestors.org has recently issued on a name-searchable CD-ROM “The Search for Missing Friends” – Irish Immigrant advertisements placed in The Boston Pilot (which had a nationwide circulation) from 1831-1920. (also available to members on the NEHGS website: http://www.newenglandancestors.org/research/Database/MissingFriends_VOL1-8/Default.asp

Online Newspaper Images:

· Newspaper Archive online: www.newspaperarchive.com Pay site ($50/year – but available to “Scholars” [Patrons] of the Godfrey Library www.godfrey.org.

· ProQuest has scanned many major newspapers scanned by ProQuest, see: www.proquest.com/products_pq/interactive/demos/hnp.

· Ancestry.com subscribers with access to the Historical Newspaper Collection can search through the many newspapers in this database at: www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/periodicals/news/default.aspx. Ancestry has recently added a large collection of BMD announcements from 1851-2003: www.ancestry.com/s26734/t8613/rd.ashx

· The current list of Wisconsin newspapers in the collection is at:

www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/periodicals/news/dblist.aspx?tp=2&p=52

The current list of Massachusetts newspapers in the collection is at: www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/periodicals/news/dblist.aspx?tp=2&p=24

The current list of Illinois newspapers in the collection is at: www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/periodicals/news/dblist.aspx?tp=2&p=16.

· Paper of Record: www.paperofrecord.com has “more than 8.4 million” scanned images of newspapers from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Mexico, France, Ireland, Spain and Australia.

· “Scholars” [Patrons] of the Godfrey Library www.godfrey.org can get access to many scanned newspapers, including The London Times 1785-1985 and Newsbank’s Readex “Archive of America – Early American Newspapers, Series I, 1690-1876”. This collection is also available to NEHGS members at: www.newenglandancestors.org/research/database/premium_databases_ean.asp).

· The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online (1841-1902) is now online with a fully searchable index and scanned images of the actual pages: http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org (Be sure to see the Konvalinka death notice indexed under the name Brissel).

· The Historic Missouri Newspaper Project: http://newspapers.umsystem.edu/Archive/skins/Missouri/navigator.asp?skin=Missouri&BP=OK&AW=1145390614104

· ProQuest has digitized the complete backfile (1889-1985) of The Wall Street Journal “from cover to cover--not just the news stories and editorials, but also the photos” http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-31-2002/0001775045&EDATE=

· Another source of online indexed newspaper images: The OldenTimes.com http://theoldentimes.com/index.html

· ~~Also: www.OtherDays.com has some Irish newspaper (and other Irish genealogical information).~~

· Irish Newspaper Archive http://irishnewspaperarchives.com “the most ambitious archival project ever launched in Ireland”

· British Library online newspaper archive: www.uk.olivesoftware.com.

· The London Gazette, the official newspaper of record in the United Kingdom (which include legal notices, including insolvency notices, required by law to be published in the London, is online (from 1900 at this time) at: www.gazettes-online.co.uk/generalArchive.asp?webType=0.

Don’t Neglect Ethnic Newspapers: :

As well as English language newspapers, remember that ethnic and foreign language newspapers could provide a wealth on information about the life of your persons – both in this country and in the “old country.” Many current editions of ethnic newspapers are available. For a good discussion of modern ethnic newspapers see:

· www.mediaforesight.org/ethnic.htm

· http://dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Newspapers/Cultures_and_Groups

The Center for Research Libraries has a searchable database of ethnic newspapers and related items at: www.crl.edu/content.asp?l1=5&l2=23&l3=44&l4=26, although few of these papers have been digitized.

However, some progress is being made in digitizing older, historic ethnic newspapers. From the December 18, 2005 issue of “Nu? What's New? The E-zine of Jewish Genealogy” (Gary Mokotoff, Editor), www.avotaynu.com/nu.htm:

“There are many indexes to Jewish newspapers available but apparently few that provide actual copies of the publication. There is a German-Jewish newspaper collection at http://www.compactmemory.de. More than 50 German-language newspapers have been digitized. The site is entirely in German. …. Hebrew University offers online access to Historic Hebrew Newspapers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A description of the collection is located at http://jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/newspapers/eng.html. (The site itself is entirely in Hebrew.)”

Toadnet http://toad.net/~andrews/jreldenom.html provides links to the news services of various Christian denominations and other world religious organizations-- other religious denominations.

Michael Neill’s article “Ethnic Newspapers” appeared in Ancestry Daily News on 6-5-06 (available free thru www.Ancestry.com)

Other Websites, etc. for Newspaper Resources: :

The Newsbank Readex website: www.Readex.com contains review articles and informational pieces about the Early American Newspaper Collections.

Cyndi's List of Newspapers: www.cyndislist.com/newspapr.htm.

National Endowment for the Humanities Newspaper Program: www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html.

Library of Congress links to Newspaper Archives and Morgues: www.loc.gov/rr/news/oltitles.html.

The New York State Library -- 3 million pages of (microfilmed) New York State History in Newspapers on its Web site: www.nysl.nysed.gov/nysnp.

Newspaper abstracts for US, Canada, Ireland before 1923: www.newspaperabstracts.com.

Mail Lists for old newspapers in various states: www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?id=2339.

Newspaper Indexes from Burlington County (New Jersey) Library:

NJ Mirror 14 Oct 1818 to 5 Mar 1927: http://index.burlco.lib.nj.us/Mirror/
The Bordentown Register 25 Dec 1855 to 26 June 2002: http://index.burlco.lib.nj.us/BordentownRegister/
Central Record 24 Dec 1897 to Oct 1899; Jan-Nov 1916; Feb 1927 to 27 June 2002: http://index.burlco.lib.nj.us/CentralRecord/

NJ-OLD-NEWS. A mailing list for the submission of abstracts, extracts and links from New Jersey newspapers published prior to 1931. Newspapers contain much of the information that may not be found elsewhere such as births, marriages, deaths, court notices, etc. They also provide community news and many fascinating details about the lives of our ancestors. Additional information can be found on the Newspaper Abstracts website. To subscribe send the following to nj-old-news-subscribe@newspaperabstracts.com: subscribe. (Similar lists may be available for other states.)

Related Resources – Cemetery and Obituary Records: :

There are a number of professional and volunteer efforts are underway to transcribe or provide actual images of cemetery and tombstone data as well as to develop indexes of obituaries appearing in a large number of newspapers. A worthwhile site to learn which of these records are online is: http://home.att.net/~wee-monster/deathrecords.html.

Other worthwhile sites – for cemetery data:

· Cyndi's List of Cemeteries: www.cyndislist.com/cemetery.htm

· www.interment.net -- Almost 4 million records from almost 8,400 cemeteries around the world.

· Cemetery Junction: www.daddezio.com/cemetery Listings of over 80,000 cemeteries plus obituary listings and citations.

· Tombstone Transcription Project: www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery

· RootsWeb Cemetery Database: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/cemeteries

· Arlington National Cemetery: www.arlingtoncemetery.com Includes information about many people buried in Arlington.

· Civil War Center Cemeteries: www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/links/hist.htm#Cemeteries Links to many Civil War cemeteries.

· Greenwood Cemetery (Brooklyn NY) online Burial Inquiry: www.green-wood.com (If link doesn’t work, try again, or search thru Google).

Other worthwhile sites – for obituary data:

· Obituary Daily Times: www.rootsweb.com/~obituary has recorded over six million obituaries and is reported to be growing at the rate of 2,500 obituaries a day.

· Obituary Central: www.obitcentral.com.

· Obituary Gateway: www.gengateway.com/index.cfm?GID=20.

· Early New York Times Obituaries Index: http://www.obitcentral.com/obitsearch/obits/ny/nytimes Index of 1929 obituaries, links to the 1890 New York Times Death and Marriage Index, and more.

· Free Obituaries Online http://www3.sympatico.ca/bkinnon/obit_links.htm.

· Obituary Lookup Volunteers http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~obitl.

· Ancestry.com Obituary Collection: www.ancestry.com/search/obit.

· www.ObitsArchive.com -- $earchable archive of (current)obituaries and death notices from hundreds of newspapers.

Suggestions for Further Reading:

Mark Skulnick, “Newspapers Online”, INTERNET Genealogy, April-May 2006, pp 49-52.

Lauren Maehrlein, “Searching the Early American Newspapers Database”, The New York Researcher, Winter 2006, pp 7-8.

Newspapers in the Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, IL, Illinois State Historical Library, 1964-1998.

Scott, Franklin William, Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois 1814-1879, Springfield, IL, Illinois State Historical Library, 1910.

Sergeant, Sharon E. “Archive of Americana - Using a Digital Time Machine to Beam Back in Time” Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly, June 2005, page 71 ff.

Stamm, Patricia, “Black and White and Read All Over”, National Genealogical Society News Magazine, April/May/June, 2005.

John Philip Colletta, PhD, Finding Italian Roots, Second Edition, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., 2003. See also articles by John Colletta:

· “Technology’s Impact on Immigrant Records”, Ancestry Magazine November/December 2001, pp 29 ff.

· “US Passenger Arrival Records – What are they, Really?” Family Chronicle Magazine, November-December 2002, pp 19 ff.

· “Births and Deaths at Sea” Ancestry Magazine, January-February 2003.

Lloyd Bockstruck, Denizations and Naturalizations in the British Colonies in America, 1607-1775, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., 2005.

Loretto D. Szucs, They Became Americans: Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins . Ancestry, 1998.

Kory L. Meyerink, AG, “Rediscovering Passenger Lists”, Ancestry Magazine November/December 2001, pp 21 ff

Rick Crume, “Finding Immigrants Online”, Family Chronicle Magazine, January/February 2006, pp 29-32.

George Morgan, “Our Ancestors’ Migration Patterns: The Push and Pull Effect”, Family Chronicle Magazine, January/February 2006, pp 34-36.

Family Tree Magazine, February 2006 – Special Issue: Immigration (several worthwhile articles).

James M. Beidler, “Exit Strategies”, Family Tree Magazine, February, 2006, pp 46 ff.

Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, “The Secret Garden”, Family Tree Magazine, August, 2005, pp 27 ff.

Laureen Eisenstodt, “Web Watch – Harbor of Hope”, Family Tree Magazine, February, 2006, p 76.

George F. Ryskamp, AG, Leandro Soria, and Aimee, Lykins, “Immigration Ancestors: BYU Project Makes More Records Accessible Online”, Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly, December, 2005, pp 151 ff.

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Any problems with any links in this handout – or questions about the talk? Please email me at john@konvalinka.com