How to find what newspapers might be available.
First you need to know what was published. Not every published newspaper survived, but most of those that did have now been filmed. Efforts are ongoing to make sure that all are filmed. Why do you care if it has been microfilmed? Once you know a title is available on film, go to your local public library and ask that it be borrowed for you on Interlibrary loan.
Remember: check for newspapers in the town and nearby towns where your ancestor lived, but also in the county seat (where legal notices would have been published), nearby communities and areas where the family used to live.
Directories on the web
- The Library of Congress site "Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers " includes a directory of newspapers that have been located in libraries across the nation. It is not a directory of everything that has ever been published but will probably include most (if not all) of anything that is available today.
- Select the state, county OR city and dates of interest. Once you see a nespaper that might be useful, click the name of the newspaper to get a union list of owners. This helps identify a library that might lend a film copy. Print the page off and take it to your local librarian, who wil help you identify how to obtain a microfilm copy on interlibrary loans.
- Chronicling America is based on an earlier NEH sponsored U.S. Newspaper Program, which was a cooperative national effort among the states and the federal government to locate, catalog, and preserve on microfilm newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present" Scroll down on the page for a summary and link to the status of the project in each of the states. Microfilm copies of newspapers are generally available to researchers anywhere in the country through inter-library loan. The American Antiquarian Society offers a handy list of links to the various state web sites that contain lists of newspapers filmed, with a brief description of how each is arranged. I sometimes like to use this site rather than the directory at Chronicling America because it takes me directly to the website of the owning libraries.
- UMI is major commercial filmer of microfilms. They have a website libraries use to find out what is available for purchase, but you can use it to find what has been filmed by UMI. Use the quick search if you are interested only in a specific title; otherwise, use the advanced search, leave title blank and fill in time period, country, state and/or city.
- Newspapers in Microform United States 1948-1983 (multivolume) (find in a library) -- Note: this can be viewed online at the Library Of Congress website Newspapers in Microform 1947-1983 (The dates 1948-1983 are the dates of the microfilming; older newspapers are listed. ) Each of these is offered in two formats: "page turner" and pdf. When I used page turner, I had to click "higher quality image" to read each page, and once I did so, had to scroll to find the text. The PDF file is preferrable because you can do a word search after you open it up, but if you have a dial up connection, it may not be practical, as they are very large files.
- Ancestry's Redbook Online has a section for state (scroll down to find links to each state) , with a subsection covering "periodicals, newspapers and archives" . Check that section for the state you are researching. As an example, here is that section for Michigan.
Paper Directories
For decades researchers relied on three major lists of newspapers-- Brigham, Gregory and NIM-- which are described in this article on newspaper directories
- Brigham. History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820. 2 vols., Worcester, Mass., American Antiquarian Society, 1947. A volume of "Additions and Corrections" was published in 1961. (This should be available in almost any library of a moderate size. )
- Gregory. American Newspapers, 1821-1936: A Union List of Files Available in the United States and Canada. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1937 (This should be in any library of a moderate size)
Other valuable, but lesser used directories include:
A handy way to find newspapers published in a city during the time your family lived there is to consult the city directory for those years.
For more sources, see Annotated Bibliography of Newspaper Sources
Find actual newspaper articles on the web:
- NEH is now partnering with the Library of Congress to fund and imlement the National Newspaper Digitization ProgramTheir website promises "this complex, long-term project ultimately will make more than 30 million pages of newspapers accessible online to students, teachers, parents, scholars, and historians." As of March, 2007, the first 200,000 pages are available on the Library of Congress's prototype Web site, "Chronicling America." (this is the same site that offers the directory of filmed newspapers)
- Joe Beine provides a listing of some of the major sites at his Historical Newspapers and Indexes on the Internet
- Paper of Record includes more historical newspapers, as well as newspapers from other countries. You must register, but at this time it is free. Most of the newspapers here are Canadian and foreign. There doesn't appear to be a search engine that searches all or several at once; first you must select the newspaper of interest.
- The Olden Times: Historic Newspapers online. -- I almost didn't include this because it is so cluttered with advertising and may bring popups to your computer. But it does include a search engine, a listing of names and some interesting examples, so if you're game... go ahead.
- Many newspapers now archive their current issues on the web. Usually these are searchable. To find them, use the Internet Public Library's list of links to U.S. Newspapers and Online Newspapers from Around the World.
- Use HometownFreePress.com to find current online newspapers. Often once you get to a newspaper, you will want to locate and search the full archives.
- And individuals are submitting transcribed data to NewspaperAbstracts.com. -- there isn't a lot there, but you might want to become a volunteer and add data. It is international in scope.
There are some current commercial efforts to get scanned images of newspapers available on the web. Some are offered to individuals and some available through libraries only. If your hometown library doesn't offer the subscription you want, check a nearby large public or university library, or see if it is available through joining a membership library (such as Godfrey Memorial) or society (such as NEHGS).
These databases are available only through library subscriptions. Check to see if your library offers them. If not, see if a nearby large public or university library does. If so, you can use them onsite.
- 19th Century U.S. Newspapers will be available only through a library. It includes the scanned content of approximately 500 U.S. newspapers published between 1800-1900. Godfrey Memorial includes this in their databases.
- America's Historical Newspapers will be available only through a library. Both NEHGS and the Godfrey library offer this to members through their website. Some of the earlier newspapers are available at large research libraries in a microform set, but of course they aren't fully searchable. The digital project is in 3 segments: Early American Newspapers Series I 1690-1876 and Early American Newspapers Series II 1758-1900, Series III 1829-1922. Relatively little has been added beyond segement I, but content is growing.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers will be available only through a library . It offers historical content of several big-city newspapers, but libraries can elect to subscribe only to specific newspapers, so not all libraries will have every choice.
- 17th -18th centry Burney Collection includes titles from London, the British Isles and colonies.
- 19th century British Library Newspapers, include national and regional newspapers in Great Britain.
The databases listed below offer personal subscriptions:
Find indexes to newspapers:
Some local libraries have maintained subject, personal name or obituary indexes to local papers for years. Others are now creating such indexes. To find these, you must often check the webpage of the library in the area of interest. Use Libraries on the Web to find the website of the public library in a city that interests you.
Here are some Michigan examples:
NB: The fact that a library does not have an obituary or newspaper index online doesn't mean they don't have one on site. If there is no mention of one on the web page, you can e-mail a reference librarian and ask. An excellent example of a "hidden" index is the multi-title indexing that Louis Doll did of early Washtenaw County newspapers. The trouble is, it can be tricky to find these, so if you don't find anything in your searching of the catalog, ask a librarian to be sure.
Another place that might index (and hold) local newspapers is the local historical society -- these indexes are often not mentioned on the library websites. To find local historical societies, check D'adezzio.com Society Hill Directory.-- but don't assume that if there is no link the society does not have an online presence. Once you know the name of a society, Google it to see if a website is now available.
Obituaries
- Some libraries offer the electronic resource "America's Obituaries and Death Notices" -- a Newsbank database of 20th century obituaries. If your library doesn't offer it, I think it might might be the same as is offered at $ObitsArchive.com$ and includes mid to late 20th century to current obituaries. You can pay for individual obituaries or subscribe. . You can also join the Godfrey Memorial Library for $35/year and have access to this and dozens of other databases. This doesn't link to copies of the newspapers, but does include fully transcribed obituaries.
- Ancestor Hunt has a listing of links to obituary search engines at libraries, universities and societies. (It isn't comprehensive)
- Free Obituaries Online gives links to many sites that index and provide obituary information.
- Obituary Daily Times serves as an index to obituaries from more recent newspapers.
- Joe Beine's Obituary Research Guide contains links to online obituary information.
- You may be able to find someone who will do a lookup for you. Check the U.S. GenWeb pages for the county you need or see if someone is offering to do this at Obituary Lookup Volunteers. When requesting an obituary, first establish the date of death.
Learn more about newspaper research
There are several online articles that will help you learn more about doing newspaper research.
Read Books and articles on Newsapaper Research:
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