Turn-of-the-century small-town newspapers are treasure troves of genealogical information. Offering so much more than just cold, hard facts, these small-town papers reported on the social lives of their citizens, retold the drama at city council meetings, or announced both the routine and the unusual events in the community. These newspaper articles not only confirm facts found in other primary source documents, they can add depth and character to genealogical research subjects.
For instance, I was recently researching a family who lived in the community of Bristol, Pennsylvania, for over fifty years. Three generations of this family worked, lived and died in this town, a town first settled in 1681 on the shores of the Delaware River. The local newspaper was the Bucks County Gazette and it was full of articles and little snippets about this family.
Up until that point I only knew hard facts: names, birth dates, marriage dates. With the addition of the newspaper articles, I learned that the head of the family and his son’s carpentry tools were stolen, confirming their occupations enumerated on the censuses.
From another article, I learned that a member of the family, fresh out of college, worked on the Panama Canal.
I learned that tragedy struck the family when their twenty-one year old daughter died suddenly.
I learned that one member of the family was active in the affairs of the community from a lengthy article describing a vote cast by the male members the Methodist Church, deciding if the females members should have a voice in the business of the church. The head of the family was the chairman and oversaw the rigorous debate and then the controversial vote. He voted “yea” and the yeas won.
Best of all was finding an article revealing the character of one of the family members. After sharing news of his unexpected death, the article reports: “He was a quiet, modest, unassuming man who retained the respect of everyone who knew him.” I did not get that kind of information from his death certificate.
According to GenealogyBank.com, newspapers “are likely the only surviving documentation of the daily lives of your ancestors.” That certainly was the case for the three generations of a family in Bristol, Pennsylvania. For a genealogist, the small town newspaper brought excitement and depth to the historic narrative of this family and certainly opened a window into their fascinating lives.
Here are some newspaper databases we use regularly:
For archived local news about your ancestors, try an internet search for that town's paper. You may find something fascinating!
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Thanks for the great article and reminder on the importance of newspapers in genealogical research. My two favorite databases are linked with my membership in the New England Historic Genealogical Society. When you log onto their subscription site (AmericanAncestors.org), there is a link inside the pale blue box towards the top named “External Databases”. That link then leads to two early Amercan newspaper databases: “19th Century US Newspapers” and “Early American Newspapers, Series I 1690-1876”, both easily searchable. Also, for New York state, there is a free website, FultonHistory.com. It’s a bit harder to learn how to search it (read the FAQs for instructions!) but it’s very worth it – even if the family did not reside in New York. Papers exchanged stories all the time, all over the country, as they still do now.
Alison, I really enjoy doing genealogy, but I have never thought to use a newspaper to help me do that before. However, I would love to go into greater depth by using one of the databases that you listed so that I can find out more about my ancestors. Yet, how can I know for sure that my relatives are the ones being talked about in the articles that come up?
The best way to determine if the person being talked about in the newspaper article is your ancestor is to find additional records to supplement the information. For instance, if the newspaper is announcing a marriage, then search for the actual marriage record by going to the county where they were married, order the record, then see if the record has any additional information that will prove that is your ancestor, such as the names of their parents, the names of the witnesses, or their ages.
I just found an announcement in a newspaper for the reading of a will for Jerry P Miller. That name is the same name of an ancestor, but I am going to call the county and see if they have a copy of the actual will, then I will go through that record looking for clues that this particular will is for my ancestor, especially since “Miller” is a common name.
http://familysearch.org is a great database that is free to use to look for original records.
For $350 you can hire Legacy Tree to prepare a Discovery Research Plan to follow to explore the questions you have. Give us a call if that would be helpful for you.
Thanks for your informative post. I appreciate your ideas and resources.
The newspaper sites want you to pay for using their sites. I can not pay for using a site.
Hi Sybil. The article also includes several free resources you should consider checking out!
Hi
Need to research family tree in Ireland, England and the Caribbean.
Where is the best place to start?
Ronnie