One of our genealogists discusses how newspapers worldwide can connect family lines and associate ancestors with particular places, especially when vital records are not available. Newspapers! Газети! A window to the Past Newspapers can be invaluable in proving family connections in periods when birth and death records might not exist. They can also show relationships between two different places. And most importantly, newspapers are found throughout the world. Those with roots in the … [Read more...]
A Step-by-Step Guide to Researching Historical Newspapers
For many record groups used by genealogists, there are intuitive molds of sorts for getting started. The U.S. Census is taken on the “0” year every decade. American vital records are usually documents controlled on the state level. The type and availability of church registers is determined by a denomination’s beliefs. But historical newspapers? Well, they break the mold as a record group—with not only diversity of content but also a multitude of sources that need to be used harmoniously for … [Read more...]
Denied Access to a Vital Record? Try the Newspaper!
When privacy laws prevent researchers from finding genealogy records, newspaper records may provide the information you're searching for! Strict privacy laws, designed to protect both the living and the dead from having their identities stolen, can create some serious problems for a genealogist. Some states permit the acquisition of birth, marriage, or death records when the individuals named in those records have been dead for 50 years, or 100 years after the event was recorded. Other … [Read more...]