At the CGGS monthly meeting on October 19, 2018, President Lodi Palmer gave an interactive presentation for using online newspapers to find your ancestors. Using a mixture of free and subscription newspaper databases, she showed the audience how to use quotes around names (“George Wilson”) in search queries to narrow the results, and emphasized using the database filters — such as date range, geographical area, and specific newspapers — to weed out the extraneous results and focus on the ones you want. She also explained the importance of searching for all possible spellings of names, and pointed out that these newspaper archives can also be used to learn about what life was like for your ancestors. Lodi provided an extensive list of online newspaper databases (see below).
Member Stacy Cole also explained how to find your ancestors in newspapers that have not been digitized and put online by querying the www.worldcat.org database to find nespapers that have been microfilmed and are being held by institutions such as universities. (Example: Search for “Crisp County Georgia newspapers” in http://www.worldcat.org, then click on the Crisp County News results to see that it has been microfilmed and is held by the University of Georgia.) She explained that you can then ask your local library to obtain the microfilm through interlibrary loan. The Brunswick library’s new microfilm reader allows for saving clippings or entire pages from a microfilm to a flash drive for viewing at home.
Following is the list of online newspapers databases that Lodi compiled. $ indicates that the database requires a subscription fee; all others are free.
The Big Subscription Sites:
These sites charge subscription fees, which allows them to have a real depth and breadth of sources. Often you can find a special deal for a limited-time subscription, which allows you to see whether the database meets your needs. Each database has a different list of newspapers and time periods covered.
Newspapers.com: https://www.newspapers.com/ (if you have an Ancestry.com membership, check to see if newspapers.com is bundled with your subscription. Some Ancestry membership levels come with basic Newspapers.com; there are more newspapers available at the premium Newspapers.com subscription for an additional fee.)
GenealogyBank.com: https://www.genealogybank.com/
NewspaperArchive.com: https://newspaperarchive.com/us/ (if you have a MyHeritage.com account, check to see if this is bundled with it)
FindMyPast.com: Comes with its own newspaper archives
Free newspaper sites:
Google News: http://www.googlenews.com/
Wikipedia’s list of international and U.S. online newspapers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_online_newspaper_archives
FamilySearch.org’s Wiki List of Historical Newspapers: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Digital_Historical_Newspapers
Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network: http://catalog.crl.edu/
Library of Congress’ Chronicling America: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
Illinois Digital Newspapers Collection: http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/
Small Town Papers: http://smalltownpapers.com/
Fulton Newspapers (contains old newspapers from U.S. and Canada, not just Fulton, New York): http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html
Elephind.com: https://elephind.com/
National Library of Australia Trove: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/
Kiosko.net (English-speaking and international newspapers): http://en.kiosko.net/
UK National Archive: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/newspapers/
Europeana newspapers: http://www.europeana-newspapers.eu/
The Ancestor Hunt by Kenneth Marks: http://www.theancestorhunt.com/
Online Historical Newspapers: https://sites.google.com/site/onlinenewspapersite/
Fold3 newspapers: https://www.fold3.com/category/25/newspapers
Free Newspaper Archives: https://newspaperarchive.com/free-newspaper-archives/
Historical Jewish Press: http://web.nli.org.il/sites/JPress/English/Pages/default.aspx
