How and where to find old newspapers

[@elohrey9613]

Thank you! I was just researching newspapers this morning about my second great grandparents. There is soooo much information that can be found in newspapers, the social media of the day. Sometimes I wonder how people weren’t robbed when the newspaper reported that they were going an a trip, or what people thought when they read about someone they knew hosting a party to which the reader wasn’t invited.

[@AncestryAimee]

So true! 😂

[@feliciagaffney1998]

Everyone (at least in the rural communities where my ancestors are from) were too busy working their family farms and just doing daily living to even consider robbing neighbors! Life was hard in the 1800's and older! No modern conveniences...

[@renew4720]

Thank you Aimee! I’ve been doing ancestry research for over 15 years, and I believe you are a genius on the hacks and tricks of researching; you have helped me thru so many brick walls. Can’t thank you enough for your FREE instructional videos - please don’t ever stop 👍🏻!

[@AncestryAimee]

Wow, thank you! That is a shot in the arm! Thanks!

[@annw1395]

Wow, I didn't know those places to look. Thx! I've found clippings sometimes on other people's Ancestry family trees, and I will copy that photo, and put it on my tree (recording the source and person's tree). Occasionally, someone will have on their tree a photo of a newspaper clipping of a family event: a reunion; or a 90th birthday party (listing all the extended family members who attended); or when a military son won a medal; as well as the usual engagement parties, birth/marriage/death announcements, etc. I have a funny clipping from the 1930s saying that my grandfather was being released from the hospital later that day. Lol. Newspapers were the Facebook of the day.

[@AncestryAimee]

They were and such a treasure for us genealogists!!

[@feliciagaffney1998]

Thabk you! What a great video! I filed this in my genealogy playlist a while ago... just now getting to it. I'm glad I did! ❤ When I was recently at the NC State Library, the librarian suggested I try Chronicling America. I did try for one man... but was feeling very lost on how to search it. I will try again, and you have given me a thought to look at some papers there for my ancestors I can't find in the county where they were supposed to have grown up! Maybe I can find a wedding announcement in these papers! 🤞🏻💜 Or even anything, really. I don't yet even know what town in the county they lived in.

[@AncestryAimee]

So glad it’s helped you! Good luck!

[@QT2789]

Wow! Glad to know about the Tihen notes! My paternal grandfather started his family in Wichita and his sisters lived in the area all their lives. I've been trying to improve source citations and fill in gaps in the research I inherited from my parents. The notes didn't have names of the surname I'm working at the moment, but I'm sure F.A.N. will apply. Lots of other great sources on that page. Hoping to find the information I'm seeking....

[@AncestryAimee]

Hope so too!

[@jamesmcgarity614]

You are a brain, Thank you

[@AncestryAimee]

Wow, thanks!

[@peg7925]

Excellent!! Thank you!!

[@AncestryAimee]

Glad you liked it!

[@neverstoplearning2]

Oh my goodness..inspired by this video...I was looking in the newspaper for an ancestor and found a sad (but interesting) story of an ancestor who was murdered by her husband....he was arrested for murder and bigamy. Apparently, the mistress who later became his wife, was the reason for the murder. This happened in Missouri, and a mob of 125-400 men (reports vary) came to the jail one night, threatened the sheriff with a pistol in his face...released the abusive husband and took him out and lynched him. It was a big deal at the time and there are several articles about it. Also interesting was that the abusive husband was not the relative from my father's side that I was looking for, but his wife is a distant cousin on my mother's side!

[@AncestryAimee]

Wow! What a story! Thanks for sharing

[@randywallis9624]

Amy your video was very interesting and informative, so from what I understand is I can not actually search for an ancestor when I find the various papers I need to contact who has them as listed in “complete holding information”? Thanks Randy

[@AncestryAimee]

Sometimes a name search will work on Chronicling America or Newspapers.com and such but when not, find those little local papers and check those. Often it’ll be a page turning endeavor but it can yield great results!

[@jamesmcgarity614]

As always good job Thanks

[@AncestryAimee]

Thank you James!

[@MKB0720]

Oh WOW!! Thank you so very much for this information!!!

[@AncestryAimee]

You are so welcome!

[@heard3879]

Fascinating indeed. I'd be careful not to believe everything I read in newspapers because I've seen my own family (people who are still living) mentioned in newspapers with many factual inaccuracies. But some info will be more accurate than that.

[@AncestryAimee]

So true! From inaccurate information provided to the newspaper to typo's. But, like you said, sometimes it's all you have to learn more about your ancestor. I do love the interesting facts that come out of them too! Like they won the state fair with their fruit or something. Thanks for adding that comment!!

[@CharlotteFairchild]

I have been doing genealogy for 40 years. I was an Ancestry member for a few years before my parents died in 2011 and 2013. Sometimes I find things from the people who are on the Facebook for Criminal Genealogy! I had a relative who was a POW in the Civil War, maybe. I haven't proved it was my Israel Fairchild who was in Louisiana as a POW. They helped. Also, the county where my relatives lived (the same county where Lucille Ball came from, and we are not related!) Chautauqua County, NY. There is a Chautauqua Institute in that county for conferences (Mark Twain was an early speaker). So the archivist helped by giving me some of the obituaries and the FB Criminal Genealogy gave me a poem and obit for the member of my family who may have been a POW. Proving things is not so easy since my grandmother burned all the pictures, stories, letters, and everything when my Dad disappeared in 1946. She thought he was dead. He was her only child. Her husband also died that year. I hope this isn't too much information.

[@AncestryAimee]

Wow! You have had so many wonderful people help out and have found some wonderful things!! Good luck with your research!

[@CharlotteFairchild]

Aimee, if you know of many genealogy published family histories, they can also help. Jean Fairchild Gilmore blog search has 4 free books for the Fairchild family

[@CharlotteFairchild]

The family histories have indexes.

[@AncestryAimee]

@@CharlotteFairchild they can be terrific. I would just warn you to take them with a grain of salt when they don’t have solid sources.

[@sammott8557]

Thanks, this will help me broaden my search. In writing my family history, I'd like to cite my resources. How do I cite these newspaper articles? Google says to list the author first, but often times there is no author in these older papers, i.e. in the Locals Section. How do you cite your sources?

[@AncestryAimee]

Bravo for citing your sources in your family history! I would cite as follows: Publication [in italics] (publication city, state), publication date, page, article name, ; digital image, Newspapers.com (website : accessed date). Or if in a repository - that information following the semicolon. Hope that helps.

[@vanessaclark9303]

The Social Statistics Schedules (Non Population Schedule) in 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 list newspapers for each political subdivision (along with circulation and type of newspaper).

[@AncestryAimee]

Vanessa - thank you! Learn something new every day and I didn't know that one! Here's a link folks: www.archives.gov/research/census/nonpopulation

[@vanessaclark9303]

Also listed are the religious denominations in each area. A good starting point for research in church records.

[@AncestryAimee]

@@vanessaclark9303 thanks! That’s always a good thing to have. City directories (depending on the time period) can help with that too.

[@ratnasanyal1774]

I want to search for a house fire in Lawrence Kansas on November 2 1983... Which free websites to use for that ?

[@AncestryAimee]

That wasn’t that long ago. You probably should talk to somebody at a local library. They probably have the newspapers there. Or find out which papers were published there and they’re back issues may be on their website. Good luck!

[@ratnasanyal1774]

@@AncestryAimee ok mam thank you for the guidance

[@AncestryAimee]

I would contact a local library. Chronicling America only holds papers published prior to 1970.

[@gandamaniapplaraju1447]

Madem I want sakshi news paper 9feb2014

[@AncestryAimee]

A more recent date like that will probably require you contact the publisher.