“To forget
one’s ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root.” –
Chinese Proverb
As our
digital world only grows larger, we are continuing to witness the decline of
print media, such as newspapers. According to the Pew Research Cen
ter, from
2008 to 2018, “newsroom jobs fell 25%, mainly in newspapers” (U.S Newsroom
Employment, Pew Research Center). Even coffee giant, Starbucks, will stop selling
newspapers in September (NY Post).
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| "The Nation's Newspaper"by Philip Finch is licensed under CC-BY-NC 2.0 |
Though they
seem to be disappearing from our culture, newspapers are still very valuable to
genealogy research. They allow us to find news of the day, notices of births,
marriages, and obituaries. Through newspapers, we can go back 50, 100, or even
200 years ago and find tidbits telling us about our ancestors’ lives.
Newspaper
collections are not available through websites such as Ancestry, MyHeritage,
and FamilySearch. Many times smaller newspaper collections are available online
through the local library system and there are also newspaper collections
available on Newspapers.com, which is the largest online newspaper archive.
This post will discuss how to access these newspaper collections and show
examples of records that are can be found in these histories.
The first
place to turn when you are looking for newspaper records is by going to
Newspapers.com, which is the largest online newspaper archive. There are more
than 12,000 newspapers from the 1700’s to the present day. Newspapers.com is a
paid subscription service. There are two membership choices: “Basic” and “Publisher
Extra”. The “Basic” membership is $44.95 every six months or 7.95 per month.
The “Publisher Extra” membership 74.90 every six months or 19.90 per month.
Because the website is also owned by Ancestry.com, there is an Ancestry
membership which includes membership to Newspapers.com. For first time
subscribers, there is also a 7-day free trial available.
You are able
to search papers by location (state, country, etc.), or by entering a keyword
or the name of your ancestor. Another way to search is by individual paper. For
example, the Cincinnati Daily Press, which ran from 1859-1862 is available to
view on newspapers.com. Also The Cincinnati Daily Star (1875-1880) and The
Cincinnati Enquirer (1841-present). Because of the large scope of records and
the user-friendly website, I would highly recommend checking out newspapers.com
to start your newspaper genealogy journey!
Stay tuned
for part two, which will discuss accessing newspapers at your local library and
other online sources. J
Link to the image - https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/7f629519-2f75-46b2-b2e4-560de20304af
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