Extra! Extra! Read All About It! – Finding and Using Newspapers for Genealogy Research

Miles Meyer

2014 Northeast Regional Genealogy Conference

You live as long as you are remembered. -- Russian proverb

What We Usually Find In Newspapers

• Birth Announcements▫ Names of parents▫ Name of child

(sometimes)▫ Date of birth

(approximate)

• Wedding Announcement▫ Names of bride &

groom▫ Names of parents▫ Residence of bride &

groom▫ Wedding date▫ Location of wedding

• Obituaries▫ Names of family

members▫ Locations of birth &

death▫ Dates of birth & death

Example – Wedding Announcement

•What can we learn from this wedding announcement?▫People

Vincent Bornhorst – groom Marcella Link – bride John Bornhorst – groom’s

father John Link – bride’s father Charles Schoenlin Bertha Bruns

Example – Wedding Announcement

•What can we learn from this wedding announcement?▫Places

Egypt, Ohio – Bornhorst home

Coldwater, Ohio – Link home Philothea, Ohio – Wedding Maria Stein, Ohio -

Reception

Mapping Locations•Mapping the locations gives you a

perspective of how far your ancestors traveled.

Example - Obituary

• What can we learn from an obituary?• People• Emma Catherine Meyer

– deceased• Laurence Reed –

husband• Joseph & Rose Meyer –

parents• Mrs. Stella Fehr & Mrs.

Loretta Bernhold – sisters

• Herman, Alfred, Raymond, Edward Meyer - brothers

Example - Obituary

• What can we learn from an obituary?• Places• Birth – Minster, Ohio• Employed – NCR -

Dayton• Death – Dayton, Ohio• Funeral – Queen of

Martyrs Church - Dayton

• Burial – St. Augustine’s Cemetery - Minster

• Brothers - Minster• Sisters - Minster &

Dayton

Obituary - History

•Make a timeline of the important events from the obituary

Birth Date Began Working Death of Mother

Retirement Death Date Burial Date

27 November 1898

~1921 18 June 1951 ~1951 22 June 1953 25 June 1953

Location: Minster, OhioParents: Joseph & Rose Meyer

Began working at National Cash Register (NCR) Age: ~22

Rose Meyer preceded her in death

Retired from National Cash Register (NCR) after 30 yearsAge: ~52

Location: Dayton, OhioAge: 54

Location: St. Augustine’s Cemetery, Minster, Ohio

Social News - Interesting Facts•The local social news might have some

gems.• August Poeppelman is my 2nd cousin 3x removed.

• In 1923 August was growing corn on his farm.• A storm blew the roof off of his shed.

• He was growing corn in 1934 also.

Minster Post - 1934

Minster Post - 1925

• Mr. & Mrs. August Wise are my great grandparents• Mrs. Pieper is Gertrude Mary Bleister Pieper

• She is the mother-in-law of Mrs. Wise’s brother.

• Clem Winner is my 1st cousin 4x removed.• In 1942 he and his wife were living in Egypt, Ohio.• His son’s name was Ernest.• Ernest is married.• Ernest was living in Osgood, Ohio.

Minster Post - 1942

Minster Post - 1923

Social News - Interesting Facts

•Or it might just be something that makes you say “What?”.

Minster Post - 1888

Minster Post - 1951

Minster Post - 1952

Minster Post - 1923

Advertisements -

•What businesses were they involved with?

Advertisements -

•Who was selling what?

1923 Oil Stove 1932 Barn Paint1928 Floor Enamel

Legal Notices and Land Transfers•Executing wills, land

transfers, settling estates and other activities require public notice.

• Source: Charleston Mercury, 14 July 1857

Quiz!

•What genealogical information can you get from this advertisement?

• Source: Charleston City Gazette (1823)

Newspaper Archives• Pay Sites

▫Genealogy Bank – www.genealogybank.com▫Newspaper Archives – www.newspaperarchives.com▫Newspapers.com – www.newspapers.com

▫Ancestry^ – www.ancestry.com ▫World Vital Records* – www.worldvitalrecords.com▫MyHeritage* - www.myheritage.com

▫^ uses Newpapers.com database▫* uses NewspaperArchives.com database

Newspaper Archives

•Free Sites▫Google Archives(*) –

http://news.google.com/news ▫Library of Congress –

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers

▫(*) some newspaper may charge fees per view

Newspaper Archives

•International Sites▫Find My Past – www.findmypast.com

British, Irish, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Jamaica, Japan, South Africa, US

▫National Library of Australia* – http://trove.nla.gov.au

▫The Scotsman Digital Archive – http://archive.Scotsman.com

▫* Free

Newspaper Archives

•How to find newspapers▫Wikepedia List of Online Newspapers - http://

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_archives_online

▫Cyndi’s List of Newspapers - http://www.cyndislist.com/newspapers/

Tools To Help ▫Elephind – www.elephind.com

Searches over 2,250 newspaper titles (>2 million editions, >111 million pages) Includes

▫Chronicling America (1,060 titles)▫Trove – Library of Australia (399 titles)▫Many state collections

Tools To Help ▫Free OCR – www.newocr.com

OCR = Optical Character Recognition

Tools To Help ▫Snipping Tool – included with Windows