I have to admit to a huge bias here - but I will say it - Searching old newspapers for articles about my ancestors is without question the most fulfilling research about my family history. Period!

Everyone has different motivations for genealogy research. Some are name collectors, some want to be tied to someone famous; some want to get the exact BMD dates for each person in their tree. These are the popular ones.

But for me, going in depth on selected ancestors is just the best. Sure, finding a new relation in a census record, or going back another generation is fantastic. I remember when I found a new great grandmother that I knew nothing about (didn't even know her name!).  That made my day.

Who are these people?  How did they live?  What did they do? Sure, finding out that a great great Uncle pimped out his stepdaughter was interesting to say the least.  And finding out that another great great uncle was a state senator and San Francisco city supervisor was also satisfying.  These are the things that fill out what I call the third dimension of genealogy - Newspapers.​

The first dimension is their name.  The second dimension is their dates and relationships.  And the third dimension is their life story.  I like the life stories the best.

And with newspapers you certainly can attain a bunch of information about their stories - that's for sure - and in most cases that is the ONLY way you can discover their story.

But newspapers can also help you with the first and second dimension.  You can discover the name of a previously unknown sister or child in an obituary.  And you can discover their relationships in obits and other types of articles as well.

The fact is that if you are not making the research into old newspapers a mainstay in your research, then you are truly missing out.

My main goal with this website these days is to help you make newspaper research a big part of your ancestor search. Please check out the Newspapers! page on this site for tips, links and resources to help you.

I suggest falling in love with the third dimension - you won't regret it.

I have always been mesmerized by my ancestors photographs. Just to see what they looked like and to compare their facial features with those of my close relatives has been a very interesting endeavor.

But as I have been able to collect these old photos, I have also been quite interested in the surrounding "information."  For example, the clothes that they wore; the props in a portrait taken by a professional photographer; the early automobiles that they were sitting in; their homes and the architecture; and even the locations of the beaches and lakes that they visited in their "off time." All of this information "spoke" to me as a third dimension to understanding the stories of their lives.



And this additional information in these photos can certainly be useful in uncovering the typical date information that we like to document for our genealogy and family history research. These surroundings as depicted in photos can be great clues as to when and where they lived.

So let's list some of the many ways that a photograph can provide us with important and useful information about our ancestors:

1. Professional Photographer - If a professional photographer took the photos, does his name and location or name of the studio give us a clue as to the ancestors residence?
2. Type of Photo - Daguerreotype?  Tintype? Cabinet card? Can provide you with timing information.
3. Photo Frame - was it in a cardboard frame that often had the photographer;s name and city or address?
4. Clothing - the clothing that was worn can give us great clues as to the date of the photograph and therefore clues for our research.
5. Hair Style - clues about the timing of the photo.
6. Furniture and Props - in a professional photograph - more timing clues.
7. Surrounding information - such as landscape, signs, machinery, automobiles. This can give you clues as to the location of the photo; in some cases their residence location or where they went on vacation.
8. House Architecture - many photos were taken on the outside of a home. I even have many photos where the house number is included. The architecture of the home can provide some clues as to its location.
9. Gravestone Photo - terrific birth and death date information (although not always accurate) and who the person is buried next to or near can provide additional clues.
10. Writing on the Back - many times the name(s) of the folks in the photo were written on the back. But since you don't know who wrote the names or when they were written, caution should be taken as to their accuracy.
11. Postcards - in the first few decades of the 20th century, special postcards with a photo on the back were mailed. Obviously the writing in the corresponding part of the card can provide great clues.

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For useful information regarding dating an old photograph - it would be helpful to visit Maureen Taylor's Photo Detective website. And in the U.K., Jayne Shrimpton. Both have numerous articles and books pertinent to photo analysis.

To find links and other pertinent information on the location of old photos and historical images please visit the Photos! page on this website.

If you follow this website at all, you know that I from time to time update the free online historical newspapers that are available for you to search. I originally posted the New York Online Historical Newspapers Summary in February, 2014, and then updated it in December, 2014, again in June, 2015 and also at the end of 2015. The largest collection for the state is Old Fulton New York Postcards which has significant updates every few months. I usually write an article alerting you to those updates as they are published.



​There is another fast growing site for New York that you should be aware of.  And that is NY State Historic Newspapers. They are adding and updating titles at a very rapid rate and now have over 5.6 million pages available.

All of the counties in the state are now represented. It is brought to you by the Northern New York Library Network in partnership with the Empire State Library Network. You should take advantage of this resource and check back often.
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Here are the latest added and updated newspapers included in April, 2016 (over 75,000 pages added):
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• Oneida Whig
• Salamanca Inquirer
• he Whitesville News
• Allegany County News
• The Little Valley Hub
• Oneida Whig
• Warren County Messenger
• Glen's Falls Messenger
• The Freeman's Journal
• Clayton Independent
• On the St. Lawrence
• Clayton Free Press
• Clayton News
• The Garden City News
• The Helm
• East Rockaway Lynbrook Observer
• he Lackawanna News
• Lackawanna Herald
• Buffalo Morning Express
• Lackawanna's Steel City Press
• Lackawanna Press
• Newark Courier-Gazette

Good luck with your research!

For other states and additional Newspaper research resources, check out the Newspapers! page.