NEWSPAPERS IN FAMILY HISTORY

ŠCopyright 2009 by Donald R. Snow

Sections of the Class Notes

Welcome and Introduction to Class
Why Newspapers Are Important in Family History
Examples
Sources to Find Newspapers
Assignment

This page was last updated 2009-04-05.
Return to the Utah Valley PAF Users Group Home Page , or Don's Class Listings Page , or the St. George Regional Family History Training Center Home Page .
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION TO CLASS

Welcome
Instructors are Donald R. and Diane M. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu , dms34@juno.com ) of Provo and St. George, Utah.
These notes with active Internet links are posted on the Utah Valley PAF Users Group website http://uvpafug.org under Class Outlines , Don's Listings , and are linked on the St. George Regional Family History Training Center webpage . Many other class notes for family history are linked on the UVPAFUG website also.
Newspapers started in the U.S. in 1690 (see Library of Congress website below) and are a rich source of genealogy data. This class will discuss how to find that information.

WHY NEWSPAPERS ARE IMPORTANT IN FAMILY HISTORY

News articles -- school, military, current events, both local and worldwide
Obituaries
Vital records - births, marriages, deaths
Social and society columns
Classified ads -- e.g. "Search for Missing Friends" ads in The Boston Pilot -- http://www.newenglandancestors.org/database_search/MissingFriends_VOL1-8.asp
Legal notices and public announcements
Photos

EXAMPLES

Obituaries
Society columns in Indiana newspapers
Local news - St. George, Utah

Historical information in London Times

SOURCES TO FIND NEWSPAPERS

Linkpendium -- http://www.linkpendium.com -- major listing of US newspapers in each state, county, and town
Cyndislist -- http://www.cyndislist.com
US Newspaper List -- http://www.usnpl.com/
Family History Library Catalog -- www.familysearch.org
Library of Congress Digital Collections -- http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html
Utah Digital Newspapers -- http://digitalnewspapers.org/
Commercial sites

Genealogy Bank --www.genealogybank.com -- large collection of historic newspapers - can search and see snippets for free
Godfrey Memorial Library -- http://www.godfrey.org/ -- available at all FHC's

London (Digital) Times is on Godfrey -- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/
Many other newspapers

Newspaper Archive -- http://newspaperarchive.com/Default.aspx -- claims to be the largest online newspaper archive - $72/year
Ancestry -- http://ancestry.com
Footnote -- http://go.footnote.com/results.php?xid=275 -- free at FHC's
World Vital Records -- http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/contentlisting.aspx?cat=news&kbid=1117 -- free at FHC's
Historic Newspaper Archives -- http://www.historicnewspaper.com/
Readex American Newspapers -- http://www.readex.com/readex/index.cfm

Most of the current newspapers have a website and an achive, but they may not go back very far -- Try Google and other search engines

Salt Lake Deseret News -- http://deseretnews.com/home
Salt Lake Tribune -- http://www.sltrib.com/
St. George Spectrum -- http://www.thespectrum.com/

New York Times -- http://www.nytimes.com/ -- free registration; archives start with first paper in 1851
Toronto Star -- http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/about.html -- free archives only goes back to 1985
Los Angeles Times -- http://www.latimes.com/ -- free registration

For early vital records in Utah newspapers see my class notes on LDS & Utah Records on http://uvpafug.org under Class Outlines > Don's Listings

ASSIGNMENT

Search the New York Times archives to see if one of your ancestors is mentioned in it somewhere.
Search the London Times for Mormon and see the articles that come up.
If you have any Utah ancestors, try searching for their name in the Utah Digital Newspapers.

Return to the Utah Valley PAF Users Group Home Page , or Don's Class Listings Page , or the St. George Regional Family History Training Center Home Page .