This is part of a series of educational posts, intended to provide you with information that will rapidly improve the skills needed to find ancestor newspaper articles from historical newspapers.
Lesson 11 is all about searching old, historic newspapers using specialized keywords in your search criteria to help get better results.
When entering our search criteria in the search box on an online historical newspaper site, we often focus primarily on the name of the target ancestor or family. We might also search for a location or an address. or combine these with a name.
My guess is that well over 95% of online newspaper searches employ the above techniques.
I offer you some additional ways to hone in on target ancestor articles, and this is to use keywords in your search criteria. Here are some examples, that if used will get you more and better results:
There are likely many more examples. Try adding keywords - you will be glad you did.
A couple of useful resources are the Newspapers! Page on this website (which has links to over 12,000 online historic newspapers from all over the world), as well as some Recorded Webinars - all intended to help you become the best researcher you can be!
Lesson 11 is all about searching old, historic newspapers using specialized keywords in your search criteria to help get better results.
When entering our search criteria in the search box on an online historical newspaper site, we often focus primarily on the name of the target ancestor or family. We might also search for a location or an address. or combine these with a name.
My guess is that well over 95% of online newspaper searches employ the above techniques.
I offer you some additional ways to hone in on target ancestor articles, and this is to use keywords in your search criteria. Here are some examples, that if used will get you more and better results:
- If you are searching for obituaries, add the keyword "beloved" or "beloved son" or "beloved wife" etc. The word beloved is used frequently in obituaries. So entering these keywords plus the surname may focus in on obituaries.
- Similar to "beloved" try the word "dear", as in "dear husband" or "dear sister." This will also focus in on obituaries.
- A third keyword used in obituaries is "loving". For example, "loving daughter" or "loving husband".
- If you are searching for a birth announcement, add in the keywords "born to the wife of" or "born to" along with the name and that will focus in on articles about births.
- Was your ancestor a business owner? Add the word "president" or "proprietor" to the name.
- How about lodges and clubs? Try "president" or "chairman" or "secretary" for example.
- Try using the occupation in your search criteria, such as "electrician" or "plumber" in conjunction with the name.
There are likely many more examples. Try adding keywords - you will be glad you did.
A couple of useful resources are the Newspapers! Page on this website (which has links to over 12,000 online historic newspapers from all over the world), as well as some Recorded Webinars - all intended to help you become the best researcher you can be!
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