newspapers

  • Family’s Hometown Christmas

    Dec 23

    Have you wondered (especially if you had no first knowledge) what Christmas in the family hometown or home county was like? One of the best resources for learning about the town traditions and happenings at the holiday time is to check their local newspapers. Cover the time frame your ancestors lived in the town, say 1900 to 1930. This was done fo...

    More

  • How to Start Searching Newspapers on Findmypast

    Sep 11

    Findmypast has a large collection of historic newspapers. They point out that newspapers are essential genealogy resources that are often overlooked by researchers. Here is how to start searching newspapers on Findmypast. It is a good skill to have, because Findmypast frequently adds to their newspaper collections. Start by clicking on “S...

    More

  • Google Newspaper Archives

    Sep 3

    Newspapers are a wonderful resource to learn more about families, individuals or businesses in a family hometown. The are several fee subscription databases for newspapers available, but there is also the Free Google Newspaper Archives. If you have not attempted to use it, give it a try for sure. Even if it has been awhile since you did a search u...

    More

  • Newspaper Details

    Jul 3

    It was so common in medium size and especially small towns with a newspaper to print all types of details about businesses, events, churches, social items, recording of land deeds, and just ordinary citizens. Newspapers did not do just the wedding news and obituaries, but rather everyday life. An excellent source is to spend time and look for the ...

    More

  • Japanese Internment Newspapers

    Jun 1

    One of the more interesting new additions to the National Library of Congress are the digital copies of newspapers done in the early 1940s by Japanese-Americans held at Federal internment camps for the Japanese. With some 120,000 Japanese-American just from the west coast of the United States placed in numerous camps, they needed to new life. Their...

    More

  • North Carolina Newspapers

    Apr 29

    Newspapers of any time period can be so helpful in doing your family research. For example, I just came across an article from July 1930 in Texas for a friend that proved that her mother and aunt did go out to California after winning a beauty contest in Florida for a movie screen test. They had stopped to visit a family friend in Texas and because...

    More

  • A Great Winter Project

    Jan 17

    Many areas across the country or in other nations have a thick blanket of ice and snow during this time of year. To avoid having to get out in such conditions, this is a perfect time to start a really worthwhile project. Besides gathering the names, dates and basic information on relatives on your family tree, how about taking a different perspect...

    More

  • Baffling Ancestors – Some Hints

    Jan 15

    Everyone has more than one elusive ancestor in their direct lineage or extended family line. It can be quite baffling for a family researcher to find our details on that person. Here are a few hints and suggestions to help in the process. If you have found their death date and a possible location, search for a Will on file. Those legal documents ...

    More

  • Vintage Cartoons & Caricatures

    Nov 29

    Before photos were used in our ancestors' newspapers and magazines, to have any type of an idea of what a person or event looked like, these print items were dependent on artists. Many of the drawings were very detailed, just as good as a photo and others were more light-hearted drawings. Political cartoons were also very popular. Many of these t...

    More

  • The Power of the Press

    Jul 13

    There is nothing more interesting than finding a newspaper article about an ancestor. They didn't have to be a celebrity, a hero or well-known even in their hometown. Small and middle-sized town newspapers were always writing of everyday happenings relating to citizens or even strangers in a town. This happened in larger towns / cities also. Taking...

    More