Avoid These 5 Common Errors in Your Historic Newspaper Research

Ever wondered about the untold stories that lie within your family's history? Whether you're a seasoned genealogy enthusiast or a curious beginner, old newspapers could be just the thing you are missing in your genealogy research. In this video, we’ll explore - and make sure you avoid - common mistakes in you newspaper research.
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[@mattl2281]

Some more tips: Don't limit the spelling of the name to the way YOU think it should be spelled. A reporter would write what he thought someone said, and not check the spelling, and then the typesetter might change that. So Wilmoth could become Willmoth, or Wilmot, or Wilmote. I have relatives named Schaeffer and there are so many different spellings of that name (even that the family itself used within a single generation!) that I have to try every one I can think of every time I do a newspaper search, so Shaffer, and Schaffer, and Schaeffer, and Scheaffer, and Sheaffer, and maybe even a few more, if I can't find what I am looking for. For first names Lisa is correct to be broad, but don't forget names that are often abbreviated, such as William to Wm. In most older papers you will rarely find William as Bill--it just wasn't done often, but you will often find him as Wm if someone got lazy. Look at papers and see what common abbreviations were used. People often used their middle names as first names, but when they did it, they usually did it all the time, so if William wanted to be Richard he would usually be referred to as Richard. Be careful if you use their middle names as first names--you don't want to confuse them with their brother Richard William, if he exists. Also, the full name would mostly be used in something official, like "Richard William Wilmoth Dead at 58". Using initials seems to be something that the PERSON chose to do or not, so if William wanted to be known as W R he would probably have told them that his name was W R Wilmoth. I remember hearing that that stemmed from early railroading, where they had military precision and everyone was known by their initials and last name. In fact, railroads still do it to this day. T The newspaper(s) being searched can make a big difference too. If you are looking in Philadelphia or Chicago you will lucky to just find deaths, and maybe if something big happened to the ancestor. But if you are looking in smaller towns you will find when someone visited someone else on a weekend, or cut their finger at the steel mill. When you have exhausted your search for a specific person, broaden the search to just the last name (most useful with less popular names, in smaller newspapers). Maybe there is a relative who did something that you can read about to help you. When searching for deaths you may not succeed if you look for "Richard Wilmoth" because some papers list names in obituaries as "WILMOT - Richard. Husband of ...". In that case you will have to search for "Wilmot" "Richard" (in separate quotes) and see if they are close together. You may have to look at 200 listings, but it may help you find your ancestor. In small town papers obituaries can be a treasure of information--often listing parents, children, siblings, and sometimes even a full family history. If you are familiar with the area you are searching you can limit the search by county, too. I do that a lot in my home area because I know that even though a couple of towns are in County A, the newspaper in County B reported on them a lot. Even search for ADDRESSES! Once I knew where a person lived I often search by address, especially with city newspapers. Prepare yourself for some graphic news too, especially in the late 1800s. Newspapers loved to describe horrible events in great detail, so you may find that an ancestor died in a horrible manner. Some papers also liked to predict the death of a person--"he is badly hurt and is not expected to recover".

[@mattl2281]

Another thing to consider is that older papers usually referred to a wife as Mrs, e.g. Mrs William Wilmoth, and not by their first name. Once the husband died they were usually referred to with their fist name, e.g. Mrs Mary Wilmoth.

[@beckyewing9770]

Thank you so much for recommending doing newspaper searches using different name variations. Being in the UK, I use British Newspaper Archive website a lot. I'd been searching for my great grandfather William Henry Betts but very little was coming up. A search today using W H Betts, and there's literally tons - including details of a shop he owned, plus the fact that the business changed premises which in turn helped me work out a very likely answer to a research question that I had about the birth of his 2nd son.

[@elizabethbeuhring6476]

Great tips. Thanks! Another way I search, is if I have my ancestor's address, like from the census or city directory, I do a search of the street and house number. cuz sometimes their name may not be clear, or the paper will have mentioned something like "a woman at 45 blackbean drive was hurt in fire". I've also found pictures of their house in the newspaper or advertisements of an apartment complex being built and my ancestor was there. so kewl. 🙂

[@LisaLissonAYMC]

Another great way to search, plus, it combines my other favorite record set of city directories!

[@bevleeming6703]

Thanks, browsing by maps is new to me, as is reviewing the paper to see if they tended to just use first initials. And I have seen a few videos on newspaper strategies.😊

[@PurpleRainXLI]

Very informative! I enjoy using Newspapers but never realized how I can use maps in my research. Ty for the video 😃

[@vincemorath676]

Thanks for the video.

[@1SassyCrafter]

I love searching in Newspapers! I have found very useful and interesting information! Thanks for the tip about maps

[@LisaLissonAYMC]

Newspapers really are so much fun!

[@varon52]

May I be allowed to suggest something? When you were showing the “alert me” button and asking if we seeing it, some of us have poor vision. If you were to change your pointer to a dark extra large pointer and/or encircle the icon and w a i t a moment for us, it would be VERY nice. Thank you

[@LisaLissonAYMC]

Yes, I can do that! Thank you for the suggestion!

[@Rony2453]

Thanks, your points are helpful.

[@LisaLissonAYMC]

So glad you found it helpful!

[@lindaluedeke6425]

How do you save what you find?

[@LisaLissonAYMC]

There are a couple of ways. Newspapers.com has an option for attaching articles you find to that ancestor in your Ancestry.com family tree. Obviously, to do this you need a subscription to Ancestry.com. Alternatively, you can download your clippings to your computer and manually upload them to wherever you keep your family tree.

[@markwrede8878]

Never rely on the Wall Street Journal.

[@janicehackbarth394]

I've recently searched for an obituary and no results. Are there different search terms to use when looking in particular for an obituary or even a death notice? I've messaged a person who has had good luck getting those results and was told that I wasn't doing anything different than she. But I must be since I don't get the same results. Any ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[@mattl2281]

If you know about when the person died you can look for the obits of the paper you are looking in--they usually have the same heading from day to day--Deaths, Obituaries, etc. Then you can step search for that heading and look at the entries below it. If you have no idea when it happened, you will have to look for the person with some of Lisa's techniques. Most obits would use the full name, often including middle name, and not initials. Some also list the name in reverse--"Wilmoth - Richard William". You can look for the spouse by searching for "husband of xxx", maybe by including the name in the search too--"Wilmoth" "husband of xxx". Look at the obits in the papers you want to search and see how they write them.

[@sharontabor7718]

I have found some death notices and obituaries are not located via the Obituary search function. Narrow the search to the surname and known date and location. Or do a search for a child or sibling.

[@janicehackbarth394]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely try that. @@sharontabor7718