Free Digitized Newspaper Collections, Part 1

Tips to take full advantage of sites

with digitized newspapers:

• Search the site extensively. You can't get yourself into trouble unless you're downloading something so point and click and see what you can find.

• Look for tabs and sidebars which may lead to more information.

• Take advantage of tutorials and "how to use this site" buttons. Sometimes "?" and and "what's this?" appear at various places on a page. You can click on them and learn more about using the site.

•  Make sure you're searching correctly. Watch for correct dates, locations, parts of the newspaper you're searching (ie, advertisements, articles, editorials, headlines, etc.)

Here is a list of some digitized newspaper 

collections available to search online:

Online Historical Newspapers Website:

https://sites.google.com/site/onlinenewspapersite/Home

The Olden Times - Historic Newspapers Online:

http://theoldentimes.com


BYU Family History Library Periodicals and Newspapers 
(Scroll down to the "Newspapers" section for many links to digitized newspaper collections. Some are indexes but many are fully searchable sites with images of articles. Contact the BYU Family History Library regarding passwords, if needed. Some may be freely available.):

http://lib.byu.edu/sites/familyhistory/periodicals

Utah Digital Newspapers: 

http://digitalnewspapers.org
  

Tips to find digitized newspapers 

specific to your research: 

  

• Visit the "Chronicling America" website as discussed in a previous blog post on this site. You can learn which newspapers were available in which locations at which time in American History. If you know what you are looking for, it may be easier to locate.

• Use specific words on Google to do your search: Newspaper(s), Historical, Genealogy, County Name, City Name, State Name, Online, etc. I used the words: Grosse Pointe Michigan Genealogy Newspapers. It turned up results that lead me down a winding path to an elaborate collection of digitized newspapers from the ealy 1900's through today.

• Visit state university and college sites to view their digitized holdings. Many have extensive collections.

Though the Internet is vast, and digitized collections may be elusive, finding your ancestors in free online digitized newspapers is not only possible, but highly likely. Use newspaper sites and creative searches as a start. Use your desire to find your family as your motivation for discovery. Desire is the biggest factor in the finding.

Thine in the bonds of finding your family - Caroleen