Historical Newspapers & Periodicals
Historical Newspapers & Periodicals for Genealogical Research
Ancestry.com’s Historical Newspapers & Periodicals Collection helps you to look for a wealth of real information about your ancestors from quite a few different kinds of newspapers, magazines, and periodicals. These types of sources can often supplement public records and provide information that isn’t recorded any place else. You can study more about your ancestor’s lives by placing them into the context of their daily lives.
As an example, a newspaper account of a marriage might indicate that it happened inside of the home belonging to the bride’s parents, maybe even giving their names; it could possibly list the occupation associated with the groom, or indicate that your choice of ceremony was an element of a double wedding where a bride’s sister was also married. These details are not very likely to be seen on a marriage record at the local courthouse.
The newspaper collection at Ancestry.com comprises the largest historical newspaper database on the internet. Search or browse newspaper titles from the United States Government, the United Kingdom and Canada. These newspapers date from the 1700s to 2001. Because each page is a single digital image, you can print individual articles from your own computer and preserve them for your specific family scrapbook.
Newspapers have been proven a valuable genealogical tool for understanding historical events contained in the lives of our ancestors. They supply a number of clues about vital statistics (birth, marriage, and death announcements), obituaries, local news, biographical sketches, legal notices, immigration, migration, along with other historical items that place our ancestors in the context of the society in which they lived.
What are the strengths of exploring the Historical Newspapers Collection?
The Historical Newspaper Collection is an wonderful resource for “fleshing out” the details from the local events that affected our ancestor’s lives. Once you learn the basic dates and locations of the events in a person’s life, you can utilize historical records, like newspapers, to learn what happened in the areas where he or she lived.
Newspapers record the day-to-day events of a local community. You could consider them to be a journal of local events. They may include birth, marriage, and death announcements; obituaries and biographical sketches; legal notices; details about people moving into and out of the area; and other events. These may include information not included in the official records.
Here are a few of the Historical Newspapers Databases on Ancestry.com
Newspaper Obits
Minnesota Newspaper Headline Index
Missouri Newspaper Death Index
Northern Michigan, Newspaper Surname Index
Leavenworth, Kansas Newspaper Name Index, 1866-68
Rayville, Louisiana Newspaper Name Index, 1872-74
Champaign, Illinois Newspaper Index, 1892
Colusa, California Newspaper Records, 1876-84
Western Life Newspaper Name Index, 1900-02
Sacramento California, Sacramento Beenewspaper 1859, Obituaries, Marriages, Births
