NEWSPAPERS SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

©2017 by Donald R. Snow
This page was last updated 2017-11-25.  Return to the  Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page  or  Don's Class Listings Page .

    WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

  1. Instructor is Donald R. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu ) of Provo and St. George, Utah.
  2. These notes include information and websites in addition to the newspaper class notes on this webpage http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .
  3. KINDS OF INFORMATION IN NEWSPAPERS AND WHAT TO DO WITH IT

  4. Newspapers started in the U.S. in 1690 (see Library of Congress website) and are a rich source of genealogy data 
  5. Types of information
    1. Vital records, birth, marriage and divorce, death and obituaries -- some newspapers published lists of vital records at the end of the year
    2. News articles and photos -- school, military, current events, both local and worldwide  
    3. Social and society columns
    4. Legal notices and public announcements 
    5. Historical information in newspapers like The New York Times and The London Times
    6. Classified ads -- e.g. "Search for Missing Friends" Irish ads in The Boston Pilot -- http://www.americanancestors.org/search.aspx?Ca=098&Da=263 
    7. Stories about people
  6. Example -- Warren Ladd read his own obituary in the morning newspaper -- The Lowell Sun 30 Dec 1893 -- http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/11220376/
  7. Save the reference and page in a program like EVERNOTE (free) from  http://www.evernote.com
  8. Link the website to your genealogy database management program and to FamilySearch FamilyTree
  9. Do screenshots to save a copy of the page -- FastStone Capture 5.3 (last freeware version) available from http://www.aplusfreeware.com/categories/mmedia/FastStoneCapture.html -- is a good and free screen capture program -- save as a pdf or jpg, for example -- can even save the entire scrolling screen as a file
  10. My system for naming screenshots, document scans, and files so they sort into a timeline for the person's life
    1. Name of file -- "SurnameGivenNames(Married name)(birth year-death year)-(Event date YYYY-MM-DD)-Event-Description--DateScannedOrScreenshot.ext"
    2. Example -- ManwaringDiane(Snow)(1934-2012)-2012-10-10-Obituary-SaltLakeDeseretNews-2012-10-13-Ancestry-com--2014-04-10.pdf
    3. Including birth and death years shows time period and distinguishes people with same name, so no need for Jr., Sr, etc.
    4. Maiden name of women is at start so everything for her sorts together -- married name in parentheses helps in identification
    5. For events I use one or more keywords like Birth, Marriage, Death, News, LDS, History, Doc, School, Education, Census, Letter, Medical, Military, Genealogy, Talk, Audio, etc. -- this allows showing only certain types of events, if you want
    6. Event dates are in International Date Format YYYY-MM-DD after name so the files sort chronologically for each person -- putting date anywhere else or in another format makes titles not alphabetize chronologically to form a timeline
    7. Freeware program EVERYTHING from  http://voidtools.com/  finds and lists all files for the person chronologically wherever they are on your computer and by using event types you can show only certain types of events
    8. See more details in my Screen Captures notes on  http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html

    NEWSPAPERS ONLINE - FREE

  11. FamilySearch
    1. FamilySearch Wiki --more than 9,000 articles with "newspapers" in the title; good article on finding and using U.S. Newspapers -- https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_States_Newspapers
    2. FamilySearch Catalog -- https://familysearch.org/ -- do keyword search for things like "newspapers utah" (without the quotes)
    3. New FamilySearch pilot program called "Zoning" to specify the parts of pages of newspapers that have genealogy data and should be indexed
  12. Linkpendium -- http://www.linkpendium.com -- major listing of US newspapers in each state, county, and town
  13. Elephind -- https://www.elephind.com/ -- searches and links to world-wide newspapers
  14. BYU Library Newspaper Links -- http://sites.lib.byu.edu/familyhistory/ > http://sites.lib.byu.edu/familyhistory/periodicals/ 
  15. BYU-I Library Newspaper Links -- http://libguides.byui.edu/content.php?pid=9726&sid=80620
  16. Utah newspapers
    1. Utah Digital Newspapers -- http://digitalnewspapers.org/ -- Unversity of Utah received grant from Library of Congress to digitize all Utah newspapers; see timeline pdf of newspapers they have digitized so far -- http://digitalnewspapers.org/public/pdf/timeline.pdf 
    2. Pioneer Library website -- http://pioneer.utah.gov/news/index.html
    3. Pioneer Library Research Guides -- http://pioneer.utah.gov/research/guides/genealogy.html
    4. Deseret News Archives - 1850-1987 -- http://www.deseretnews.com/archives -- To search Deseret News Archives you can also go to their current website -- http://www.deseretnews.com/utah -- enter search terms (upper right corner), click on pick arrow and select Archives 1850-1987, then click on the Search button (magnifying glass) -- not all back issues of the Deseret News are posted there yet-- my  LDS and Utah Records  notes have more information
  17. Library of Congress Digital Collections -- http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/titles/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ , and  http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html .
  18. National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) -- http://www.loc.gov/ndnp/
  19. Wikipedia list of newspapers and links -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_online_newspaper_archives
  20. NewspaperCat -- http://www.theancestorhunt.com/1/post/2013/09/newspaper-cat-the-easy-way-to-find-where-the-online-newspapers-are.html and additional information and links at -- http://www.theancestorhunt.com/newspapers.html
  21. Online Historical Newspapers Website -- https://sites.google.com/site/onlinenewspapersite/
  22. GENUKI -- http://www.genuki.org.uk/ -- UK and Ireland
  23. RootsWeb -- http://userdb.rootsweb.ancestry.com/news/ -- Search all or by newspaper
  24. US GenWeb -- http://www.usgenweb.org/ -- Go to state > county > city
  25. Cyndislist -- http://www.cyndislist.com > Newspapers
  26. US Newspaper List -- http://www.usnpl.com/ 
  27. Internet Public Library -- http://www.ipl.org/
  28. Old New York newspapers -- http://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html -- can search many old New York newspapers, including the New York Times; read the FAQ before using it 
  29. Small Town Papers -- http://www.smalltownpapers.com/ -- list of several hundred current small town newspapers with archives
  30. The Olden Times Historic Newspapers Online -- http://theoldentimes.com/index.html
  31. Google Newspapers -- http://news.google.com/newspapers -- and Google News Archive -- http://www.google.com/archivesearch  (Wait for the search box to open.) -- also see more info about Google Archives Search at  https://support.google.com/news/answer/1638638?hl=en  and Google Newspapers at  http://www.davescomputertips.com/huge-archive-of-digitalized-newspapers/
  32. Michigan State U Guide to Historical Newspaper Databases -- http://libguides.lib.msu.edu/newspaperguide
  33. Illinois Newpaper Project (INP) -- http://www.library.illinois.edu/inp/database.php-- has more than just Illinois newspapers
  34. California Digital Newspaper Collection -- http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc
  35. Quincy (Illinois) Public Library website -- http://www.quincylibrary.org > Reference and Research tab
    1. Historical Newspaper Archive -- many articles about the Mormons in Nauvoo
    2. US National Newspaper websites -- links to many current national newspapers
  36. Obituary searches -- http://www.legacy.com/ns/termsofuse.aspx
  37. New York Times photos -- http://livelymorgue.tumblr.com

    NEWSPAPERS ONLINE - COMMERCIAL (Some Are Free for LDS and at FHC's)

  38. Genealogy Bank ($) -- http://www.genealogybank.com/ -- large collection of historic newspapers; can search and see snippets for free; claims that 95% of its newspapers are only on this website and not elsewhere
  39. Godfrey Memorial Library ($) -- http://www.godfrey.org/ -- free at FHC's -- includes the following:
    1. Newspaper Archive ($) -- http://newspaperarchive.com/Default.aspx -- claims to be the largest online newspaper archive, includes several New York City newspapers and New York Times archive through 1857-1909
    2. London (Digital) Times ($) -- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/ -- also on Fold3
    3. World Vital Records ($) -- http://worldvitalrecords.com/ -- also on MyHeritage now 
    4. Newspaper Archive and World Vital Records are also available in FHC's through the FHC Portal -- see the KnowledgeBase document ID 106761 --  https://help.familysearch.org/publishing/699/106761_f.SAL_Public.html 
  40. Gale Digital Collections ($) -- http://www.gale.cengage.com/DigitalCollections/ -- search "Products by Name" to see newspapers
  41. Newspapers.com ($) -- http://www.newspapers.com  -- owned by Ancestry
  42. Ancestry's Newspaper Collection ($) -- http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/default.aspx?rt=38 -- or go to Ancestry's Home page > Search > Stories & Publications > Newspapers & Periodicals -- free to LDS and at FHC's
  43. The British Newspaper Archive ($) -- http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk -- commercial, but you get a few pages free
  44. Last Chance To Read ($) -- http://www.lastchancetoread.com -- 18th and 19th Century British newspapers
  45. Fold3 ($) -- http://www.fold3.com/ -- owned by Ancestry; mostly military records, but includes some newspapers -- free at FHC's
  46. World Vital Records ($) -- http://worldvitalrecords.com/ -- click on Card Catalog (right-hand side) > Newspaper Archive Collection -- free to LDS and at FHC's
  47. Personalized Newspaper Gifts ($) -- http://www.simplypersonalized.com/newspaper-gifts/ -- sells newspapers of various dates, etc.

    CURRENT NEWSPAPER WEBSITES

  48. Newspaper websites with archives worldwide -- http://www.refdesk.com/paper.html 
  49. New York Times -- http://www.nytimes.com/ -- free registration, but they charge for some articles; starts with first NY Times in 1851 -- knowing the date and title you may be able to find the same article for free on other websites  
  50. Chicago Tribune 1852 - Present -- http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/advancedsearch.html
  51. Toronto Star -- http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/about.html -- free archives only goes back to 1985
  52. Los Angeles Times -- http://www.latimes.com/  -- free registration
  53. Salt Lake Deseret News -- http://www.deseretnews.com/utah -- To search Deseret News Archives enter search terms (upper right corner). click on pick arrow and select Archives 1850-1987, then click on the Search button (the magnifying glass) -- note that this file is incomplete and lacks many issues of the Deseret News
  54. Salt Lake Tribune -- http://www.sltrib.com/ -- Salt Lake Tribune Archives back to 1991 -- http://archive.sltrib.com/index.php?searchtab=archive -- charge for each article, but may be able to get it free elsewhere
  55. St. George Spectrum -- http://www.thespectrum.com/ 
  56. You may be able to find ethnic and trade-type newspapers, e.g. Polish language in Chicago and Carpenters Union newspapers in various places
  57. For links to early vital records in Utah newspapers see Don's class notes on LDS & Utah Records at  http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classess.html 
  58. ARTICLES ABOUT NEWSPAPERS IN FAMILY HISTORY

  59. Many newspapers are not online, only in paper, microfilm, microfiche format, etc. -- search  http://www.worldcat.org/  to see where located
  60. FamilySearch Wiki (see above) -- https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Main_Page -- do a search for something like "newspapers idaho" (without the quotes)
  61. Articles by Kimberly Powell and from About.com 
    1. "7 Tips for Searching Digitized Newspapers" -- http://genealogy.about.com/od/newspapers/tp/news_search_tips.htm?nl=1
    2. "Family History in the News" -- http://genealogy.about.com/cs/newspapers/a/news_research_2.htm?nl=1 
    3. http://genealogy.about.com/od/newspapers/Newspapers.htm 
    4. http://genealogy.about.com/od/historic_online/Historic_Newspapers_Online.htm
  62. US Newspaper Program --http://www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html
  63. Readex Newspaper Archive -- http://www.newsbank.com/readex/index.cfm?content=343 -- Click on Digital Collections (upper left side) for Archive of Americana
  64. Dick Eastman on digitizing small town newspapers -- http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2011/11/savingourscom-dedicated-to-digitizing-small-town-newspapers.html
  65. British Newspapers 1800-1900
    1. British newspapers 1800-1900 --http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/
    2. Dick Eastman -- http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/05/british-newspapers-18001900-online.html

    CONCLUSIONS

  66. Newspapers written at the time are a good source of information, stories, and data about our ancestors.
  67. More and more newspapers are being digitized and posted online, so check back often.

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