There's actually a reasonably good chance that your family may be mentioned in a newspaper. Many 19th
and 20th century papers, for example, routinely included
obituaries,
or at least death or funeral notices for residents in their area. In the 1900s, birth, wedding and
milestone anniversary announcements became quite standard. If your family was somewhat prominent in
the area in which they lived, they may appear in the society page or column, but even relative unknowns
show up for reasons such as being a party to a legal action, winning a prize at a county fair, or dying
accidentally (in fact, if you ever receive a death certificate giving "killed" or "accident" as the cause
of death, consider it your duty to search local newspapers for that time period). Earlier papers contained
less personal information, but you may still find a brief mention of a pending marriage or abrupt death as
far back as the late 1700s.
Even if your family does not appear, however, newspapers are still worth searching because they give you
context - a sense of the place and time in which your ancestors lived. Unlike today's papers, you're not
likely to find much information about world events in these older papers. What you will find, though, is
how your ancestors were affected by local happenings such as extreme weather conditions or a county election.
You may find ads for local businesses (maybe even their own!) or descriptions of local events of note such as
school, church or political functions. Everything from the fashions of the era to the price of bread to the
way they spent their Saturday nights can be found. The newspaper of days gone by was a chronicle of the events
of an area, and that alone makes it a valuable tool in your research.
Ideally, you'll want to know the town in which they lived, but it's a good idea to also know the name
of the county, state, and larger towns. Start locally and work your way up to the larger areas
as needed. Newspapers, like any other business, came and went over the years, so you'll want to know what
timeframe you're looking for to save yourself the trouble of looking for a paper that didn't even exist in
the years in which your target ancestor lived.
What if you have the name of the town in which your ancestor lived, but can't find it anywhere on present
day maps? Have a look at some gazetteers
to see if you can learn about name changes over the years. Go to the Gazeteers extra
for some online assistance with locating and using gazetteers.
Once you've defined the time and area, the next step is to find where these old newspapers can be found today.
Because of their fragility, most old papers have been
microfilmed for use by researchers. To find out
where these microfilms are located, you have several options. If you still live in the same area as your
ancestors, your first plan of attack should be to go to the local library. If they don't have the microfilms
there, they should be able to direct you to them or perhaps to newspaper abstracts that have been published
in book form.
Even if you don't live in the area, you might want to consider calling or writing the library as it may be
possible to borrow the microfilms on
interlibrary loan. If you are
unable to find the newspaper through the local library, try the state library or
archives. The state library collection should
be almost complete, and most state libraries participate in interlibrary loan programs with other state
libraries. State and county historical and genealogical societies are also an excellent resource for locating
old newspapers (and newspaper abstracts).
If you live too far to visit or the librarians you've contacted are unable to assist you, it's time
to consult some finding aids such as newspaper directories. These resources will help you identify
which libraries or repositories have editions of particular newspapers for given time periods.
Some of the better known newspaper directories are Clarence S. Brigham's History and Bibliography
of American Newspapers, 1690-1820, Winifred Gregory's American Newspaper
(which covers 1821-1936), Ayers Directory of Publications, and Lubomyr R. and Anna T. Wynar's
Encyclopedic Directory of Ethnic Newspapers and Periodicals in the United States. Many public
and genealogical libraries have these directories.
If you have easy access to a local Family History Center,
you may also want to search the FHL Catalog by the
locality -- state, county, city - and then under the subject of newspapers. While the FHL does not hold many
local newspapers, it does have indexes to and abstracts from quite a few.
There's actually a reasonably good chance that your family may be mentioned in a newspaper. Many 19th
and 20th century papers, for example, routinely included
Video Clip
Even if your family does not appear, however, newspapers are still worth searching because they give you
context - a sense of the place and time in which your ancestors lived. Unlike today's papers, you're not
likely to find much information about world events in these older papers. What you will find, though, is
how your ancestors were affected by local happenings such as extreme weather conditions or a county election.
You may find ads for local businesses (maybe even their own!) or descriptions of local events of note such as
school, church or political functions. Everything from the fashions of the era to the price of bread to the
way they spent their Saturday nights can be found. The newspaper of days gone by was a chronicle of the events
of an area, and that alone makes it a valuable tool in your research.
Of course, you'll always want to take the time to check if, in fact, there is an index!
Most newspaper indexes only contain names extracted from major articles, but the potential time savings
makes it worth a look. Anita C. Milner's Newspaper Indexes: A Location and Subject Guide for Researchers
(Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1977-82) is a useful resource. For some areas, an obituary index, sometimes
called a "necrology file," may be available through the local library or genealogical society.
