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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.
The quickest, easiest way is to visit this website: Search Newspaper Directory
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 -- but the list of owners is NOT a complete list. 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.
The old fashioned way...
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. (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)
- 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.
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
National Efforts to Preserve and Microfilm Newspapers
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.
- The NEH sponsored U.S. Newspaper Program 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.
- NEH is now partnering with the Library of Congress to fund and imlement the National Newspaper Digitization Program. . Their 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 site also has a newspaper directory you can use to identify newspapers published in a specific locality at a given time.
- 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.
Find actual newspaper articles on the web: There are some current commercial efforst 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 and 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:
- $Newspaper Archive.com$ -- a collection of newspapers from various time periods, but coverage is uneven.
- $NewsLibray$ mostly late 20th, early 21st c. articles and obituaries. You can search for free. Results are given with about a paragraph of text. If you want the whole article, you can click a "purchase" button to obtain it.
- Ancestry.com has a $ subscription that includes searchable scanned images of historical newspapers $ . Find what newspapers are available in Ancestry.com's Historical Newspaper Collection (Scroll down, then click the state you are researching). NOTE: AncestryLibraryEdition, which is available in many public libraries, does not include the historical newspaper collection.
- $Accessible Archives$ includes some early American newspapers in its databases. Before you subscribe, check and see if you can get access through your local public or university libarary.
And these are available for free:
- 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.
For more information, read John Konvalinka's online article (with links) The Newest Electronic Frontier: Searchable, Scanned Newspapers
Find indexes to newspapers: More and more public libraries are starting to offer indexes on their library site. Here are some Michigan examples:
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
Read Books and articles on Newsapaper Research:
More links
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