Newspapers Researched



Newspapers are one of the most valuable resources for family historians. The online site titled; Elephind allows you to search over 50 million items from 1,145 newspaper titles. The researcher can search across many newspaper collections simultaneously rather than having to visit each collection separately. Many of the smaller newspaper collections are not well known and may be difficult to find with the usual search engines but are searchable from Elephind.com. The site continues to add additional newspapers from across the globe on a weekly basis.

One of the best sources included are with the Library of Congress. Here are almost 800,000 newspapers covering from 1836 to 1922 within the United States, plus additional ones within the United States. The next largest is the National Archives of Australia with 338,000 newspapers covering from 1803 to 1988.

Using the keyword search box and place a hometown, surname, historical event or date. After placing the name or word, a listing of all papers where that word or name appears will be shown. To the left you could narrow down the search to just the United States, or select just a certain time period, such as 1890-1899.

The list has the title of the article, the newspaper which carried it and a date. Keep in mind, where ever a term or especially a surname appears, it will be on the list, highlighted in yellow. A brief summary for an article is also included. This is a method for finding not just general articles, but also listings for marriage records, police arrests, and obituaries.

Hoye & SmithSo do a little searching, because like the saying goes, ‘you never know what you might find.’

Photo: New York Clipper newspaper, advertisement banner about HERBERT HOEY AND TRIXIE SMITH COMEDY—SONG—DANCE UNDER THE DIRECTION OF JACK LEWIS in July 18, 1917. Herbert Hoey would go on to be in the Ziegfeld’s Frolics for vaudeville.  Imagine this was an ancestor.

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