Old Newspapers can be a treasure trove of information when searching for something on your ancestors.
People used to put EVERTHING in print, and it is out there waiting to be found.
BIRTH THROUGH DEATH
BIRTH RECORDS– Many newspapers used to announce the births of new babies and often included parents and siblings names, extended family names as well as date and time and vital statistics.
MARRIAGE RECORDS: Newspapers used to print wedding and engagement announcements, and even stories about the bridal showers. These announcements included names, family members, those in attendance, and even what the bride wore!
OBITUARIES are the news items that report the death of a person. Obits usually include and account of their life and funeral/burial details. This is a good place to find information about where they lived, their job, their family and extended family.
Many obituaries are being indexed so some can be found online.
Almost all deaths since the dawn of public internet can be found through a google search.
millions of obituaries in print that are still yet to be discovered.
PASSENGER LISTS AND MANIFESTS
PASSENGER LISTS: Did you know that newspapers used to print passenger lists? US Customs started compiling passenger information from ships around 1820, and passenger lists have been digitized and are available through US Archives. But what if you need something before 1820? Thankfully many papers published passenger lists from stagecoach and internal migration. Places like Newspapers.com by Ancestry have millions of pages in their collection that you can peruse.
Stagecoach lists, ship disaster lists, ships arriving with immigrants and ships carrying people within the United States. These lists may contain the names of one of your ancestors!
LEGAL RECORDS AND COURT PROCEEDINGS
LEGAL RECORDS: “Why were newspapers reporting this information? There are a number of reasons; three come immediately to mind.
The first being that there was a legal requirement, in many cases, to publish the date of a hearing so that those who were affected could come and participate.
Second, it has always been a part of the American justice system to have an open court, except in unusual circumstances.
And lastly, before the advent of TV, this was actually a form of entertainment.” (Family Search Blog) Through these records you can often find court proceedings, probate and wills, name changes, legal actions, land and deed.
These records can be a jackpot for many genealogy researchers, and most times they were printed right in the paper!
PICTURES AND MORE
PHOTOGRAPHS: Wedding photos, engagement photos, or town to-do’s and more.
WHERE TO FIND OLD NEWSPAPERS
You can find some of these newspapers through archives and online through google, but subscribing to a service like Newspapers.com can be helpful.
They are owned by Ancestry, and have over 617 million pages on file from almost 20,000 newspapers.
Millions of new pages are added every month.
So dont discount those newspapers as a research tool and a source for information and details!
Happy Hunting!
