One of my two most favorite things about genealogical research is finding stories about my ancestors in old newspapers.

These treasures can be found either via online searches or by browsing microfilm and/or newsprint at libraries and archives.

On this website, I have written profusely about researching old newspapers, and have also kept readers informed as to online links that can be accessed to find ancestor articles - mostly for the U.S. and Canada, but from time to time, links to collections from all over the world.

I don't pass judgment on the features and quality of these online collections, because I leave that up to the reader to decide.

But in the interest of informing readers about collections that I feel are noteworthy, I will be highlighting some of these collections in this series.

Today's collection is the The African-American Experience in Ohio.  Provided by the Ohio Historical Society, it is a collection of clippings from selected newspapers published between 1850 and 1920. It is not a large collection, nor does it have a search feature. But to get a flavor of what was happening in Ohio regarding African-Americans, it is an excellent collection of clippings from black newspapers, and there are other types of artifacts that are available on the site as well. The clippings can be browsed if you are looking for a specific individual. And it is a collection of 11 different newspapers, listed here:

• The Advocate
  
• The Afro-American
  
• The Colored Citizen
  
• The Forum
  
• The Gazette
  
• The Informer
  
• The Journal
  
• The Ohio State Monitor
  
• The Palladium of Liberty
  
• The Union
  
• The Tattler

As old newspaper researchers, we often are impressed by and tend to search the bigger collections, or those from a specific newspaper, county, or state/province.

Yet it is important to not overlook these special collections like the Ohio collection here.  An abundance of information is available and we often can get a flavor of the culture and environment in which our ancestors lived.

This is why I am choosing this collection as the "Online Historical Newspaper Collection of the Day". 


For information about how to best perform newspaper research, and thousands of links to free online collections throughout the world, check out the Newspapers! page on The Ancestor Hunt website.

One of my two most favorite things about genealogical research is finding stories about my ancestors in old newspapers.

These treasures can be found either via online searches or by browsing microfilm and/or newsprint at libraries and archives.

On this website, I have written profusely about researching old newspapers, and have also kept readers informed as to online links that can be accessed to find ancestor articles - mostly for the U.S. and Canada, but from time to time, links to collections from all over the world.

I don't pass judgment on the features and quality of these online collections, because I leave that up to the reader to decide.

But in the interest of informing readers about collections that I feel are noteworthy, I will be highlighting some of these collections in this series.

Today's collection is the Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspapers 1831-1877.  Provided by the Penn State University Libraries, it is a collection of selected newspapers published in the years before, during and after the Civil War. Specifically, the publication dates are February, 1831 through February 1877. Since newspapers were the primary way that citizens obtained their news, they were used not only to report battle particulars but also for political reasons.

There are a total of 59 titles represented in this collection. The cities of publication included are:

• Altoona 
  
• Bellefonte 
  
• Chambersburg 
  
• Clearfield 
  
• Columbia 
  
• Erie 
  
• Gettysburg 
  
• Greencastle 
  
• Harrisburg 
  
• Huntingdon 
  
• Lancaster 
  
• Lebanon 
  
• Lehigh 
  
• Marietta 
  
• Philadelphia 
  
• Pittsburgh 
  
• Reading 
  
• Waynesboro 
  
• Waynesburg 
  
• Wellsboro 
  

I find this collection particularly interesting because it is built around a common theme and represents an important part of American history. Most collections are just a collection of random newspapers with no connection or relationship to one another or any historical period.

Anyone could have put some random digitized newspapers together for a certain timeframe and called it a collection.  But Penn State obviously put some thought into this collection of important newspapers.

This is why I am choosing this collection as the "Online Historical Newspaper Collection of the Day". 


For information about how to best perform newspaper research, and thousands of links to free online collections throughout the world, check out the Newspapers! page on The Ancestor Hunt website.

One of my two most favorite things about genealogical research is finding stories about my ancestors in old newspapers.

These treasures can be found either via online searches or by browsing microfilm and/or newsprint at libraries and archives.

On this website, I have written profusely about researching old newspapers, and have also kept readers informed as to online links that can be accessed to find ancestor articles - mostly for the U.S. and Canada, but from time to time, links to collections from all over the world.

I don't pass judgment on the features and quality of these online collections, because I leave that up to the reader to decide.

But in the interest of informing readers about collections that I feel are noteworthy, I will be highlighting some of these collections in this series.

Today's collection is Old Fulton New York Postcards, certainly a labor of love by it's founder Tom Tryniski. Most certainly it is the largest "private" collection of online newspapers in the world, and thankfully for researchers it is free.

Over the years, Mr. Tryniski has managed to provide at the date of this publication - over 30 million newspaper pages that are full-text searchable.

Yes the interface looks kinda funky. But the variety of types of searches that are available can't be found (in my experience) at any other site. Booleans, proximity searching, stemming, synonym searches, fuzzy searches and phonic searches - just to name some of the options.  Check out the Help FAQ for descriptions of how to make use of these options.

At current count, there are over 740 newspapers available for online research. And now it is not just newspapers from New York state. He has started to add many newspapers from other states as well to the collection.

This collection is a researcher's dream.

This is why I am choosing this collection as the "Online Historical Newspaper Collection of the Day". 


For information about how to best perform newspaper research, and thousands of links to free online collections throughout the world, check out the Newspapers! page on The Ancestor Hunt website.

One of my two most favorite things about genealogical research is finding stories about my ancestors in old newspapers.

These treasures can be found either via online searches or by browsing microfilm and/or newsprint at libraries and archives.

On this website, I have written profusely about researching old newspapers, and have also kept readers informed as to online links that can be accessed to find ancestor articles - mostly for the U.S. and Canada, but from time to time, links to collections from all over the world.

I don't pass judgment on the features and quality of these online collections, because I leave that up to the reader to decide.

But in the interest of informing readers about collections that I feel are noteworthy, I will be highlighting some of these collections in this series.

Today's collection is the California Digital Newspapers Collection 1846-present provided by the University of California, Riverside.  This site is important to me because I have so many ancestors from California, and it is one of the first online collections that I ever used. And I have hundreds of positive results from searching this collection, yet every reader will have different results for this or any online collection, based on the number of family tree residents who were written about in any specific collection.

The underlying software used is by Digital Library Consulting, called Veridian - the folks who also house the Elephind search engine, which can search many multiple collections at once.

One of the reasons that I like this collection and software is that it provides a user the ability to "pay it forward." We know that depending primarily on the quality of the source material, whether newsprint or microfilm, as well as the capabilities of the OCR process, that the resultant text that is included in the search index may be in a word - "terrible".

This site provides the ability for the user to correct the text that is used for searching.  See on the right side of the header image above where it says "Top Text Correctors"? These are users who have actually changed the text that resulted from the OCR process, thus improving the index for future researchers. The user has to be registered, and I have contributed some text improvements myself.  It is the nice thing to do, especially since researching this collection is free.

This is why I am choosing this collection as the "Online Historical Newspaper Collection of the Day". 


For information about how to best perform newspaper research, and thousands of links to free online collections throughout the world, check out the Newspapers! page on The Ancestor Hunt website.

This website has been tracking online historical newspaper research sites for several years. There are millions and millions of pages that have been digitized and are available online. There are four types of sites for searching and researching old newspapers - those that are free to use; those that are free but available only in a library; those where you can search an index but viewing the image requires payment; and those available by subscription.

There are also sites that provide links to the four types of sites mentioned above - lists of online collections.

I am recommending the following sites that a researcher should bookmark because they are either outstanding online collections, or they are outstanding lists of online collections.

Of the four types that I mentioned above, I am only including totally free sites that do not require a visit to a library and/or do not require payment; and lists of online collection links.

My criteria are:

• The size of the collection or list of collections
• The frequency of updates
• Accuracy
• Uniqueness of content

These are provided in no particular order, with the exception that mine is first, because... well just because!

Lists of Collection Links:

• The Ancestor Hunt Newspapers! Page - U.S., Canada, and (some) World collection links
• Bowling Green State University - U.S. Historical Newspapers
• Bowling Green State University - Canada Historical Newspapers
• Bowling Green State University - World Historical Newspapers
• Can Genealogy Historical Newspapers - Canada Historical Newspapers
• Xooxle Answers - World Newspaper Archives
• Cyndi's List - World Newspapers
• Wikipedia - List of World Online Newspaper Archives
• International Coalition on Newspapers - World Newspaper Digitization Projects
• Free Newspaper Archives - U.S.
• University of Illinois - Historical Newspapers Online (World)
• Richard Heaton's Index to Digitalised British and Irish Newspapers Online
• Library of Congress - Newspaper Sources on the Web

Collections:

• Elephind - over 2,700 titles and 140 million items (newspaper pages/articles) from several countries
• Chronicling America - over 1,000 newspapers and almost 10 million pages from 38 states
• Google News Archive - over 2,500 newspapers from the U.S. and Canada
• Old Fulton NY Post Cards -  over 30 million pages from the U.S. (primarily) and Canada
• Trove - over 900 titles and 175 million articles from Australia
• Europeana - Over 10 million pages from 18 European countries

So try them out and you will find an abundance of historic newspaper collections and digitized newspapers. I will leave it up to you to judge the accuracy and completeness of all of these. In my opinion, none are perfect, including my own list, but some are far better than others and more up to date. Most of the collections listed above are added and updated frequently.

Keeping all of these links current with all the emerging new sites and updates is a Herculean task, especially with the myriad of digitization projects underway all over the world.

Hopefully the use of these lists and collections will enable you to find the resources and ultimately the articles about your ancestors that you seek.

FamilySearch continues to add or update their records collections at a fast pace for us to search.






For the period of July 1 - 15, 2015,  the added/updated collections are:

• Alabama, County Marriages, 1809-1950 
  
• Australia, Tasmania, Civil Registration of Births, 1899-1912 
  
• Belgium, Antwerp, Civil Registration, 1588-1910 
  
• Florida Marriages, 1830-1993 
  
• Germany, Saxony, Dresden, Citizens' Documents and Business Licenses, 1820-1962 
  
• Iowa, State Census, 1915 
  
• Kentucky, Vital Record Indexes, 1911-1999 
  
• Missouri, County Marriage, Naturalization, and Court Records, 1800-1991 
  
• North Carolina, Probate Records, 1735-1970 
  
• Philippines, Civil Registration (Archives Division), 1902-1945 
  
• Philippines, Civil Registration (Spanish Period), 1706-1911 
  
• Philippines, Pangasinan, Civil Registration, 1945-1981 
  
• Spain, Province of Barcelona, Municipal Records, 1387-1950 
  
• Spain, Province of Córdoba, Municipal Records, 1509-1947 
  
• Spain, Province of Huelva, Municipal Records, 1760-1950 
  
• Spain, Province of La Coruña, Municipal Records, 1648-1941 
  
• Sweden, Halland Church Records, 1615-1904; index 1615-1860 
  
• Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1834 
  
• Texas, County Marriage Records, 1837-1977 
  
• United States Census, 1820 
  

For a complete list of all added/updated collections, go to 

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list

I hope that some of these are what you have been waiting for!

NOTE: The Chicago Tribune Newspaper Archives are now behind a Pay Wall.  You can search to find pertinent newspapers, but cannot bring up the newspaper image without a subscription.

At the time of publication of this article the Chicago Tribune provides an archive of past issues from 1849 through 1991 that are text searchable. You may also type in a date. The  images are displayed for free. This Beta capability has been available for awhile. Thanks to my friend Larry Parker who made me aware of this.

This may not always be the case.  When the archive is officially launched as an online searchable database, it is likely that the display of the images from search results will be behind a pay wall.

But for now, if you have ancestors in the Chicago area, I would highly recommend that you take advantage of this Free (currently) resource.

The Chicago Tribune once had a slogan of "The World's Greatest Newspaper". This was on Page 1 from 1911 to 1976. Did you know that radio station WGN, purchased by the Tribune in 1924, stood for World's Greatest Newspaper?  I didn't, and now I have one more clever fact that I will remember always.


To search the Tribune archives, go to http://archives.chicagotribune.com/

You might want to read the FAQ section to understand what the beta is all about and their plans for the future.

Good luck!

Ancestry.com continues to add or update their records collections at a fast pace for us to search.




Here are the added and updated collections for June, 2015:

• Australia Newspaper Vital Notices, 1851-1997
  
• Brandenburg, Germany, Transcripts of Church Records, 1700-1874(in German) 
  
• Hamburg, Germany, Selected Deaths, 1876-1932 (in German)
  
• Index to Alien Arrivals at Canadian Atlantic and Pacific Seaports, 1904-1944
  
• Mainz, Germany, Family Registers 1760-1900 (in German) 
  
• Missouri, Marriage Records, 1805-2002 
  
• Nevada, Naturalization Petitions, 1956-1991
  
• New South Wales, Australia, St. John's Parramatta, Baptisms, 1790-1916
  
• New South Wales, Australia, St. John's Parramatta, Burials, 1790-1986
  
• New South Wales, Australia, St. John's Parramatta, Church Records, 1838-1918
  
• New South Wales, Australia, St. John's Parramatta, Confirmations, 1911-1925 and 1960-1966
  
• New South Wales, Australia, St. John's Parramatta, Marriages, 1790-1966
  
• New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 
  
• Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1963 
  
• Pennsylvania, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1800-1962 
  
• Pomerania, Germany, Passenger Lists, 1869-1901 (in German) 
  
• Prenzlau, Germany, Births, 1874-1901 (in German)
  
• Prenzlau, Germany, Deaths, 1874-1950 (in German)
  
• Prenzlau, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1923 (in German)
  
• Romania, Vital Records from Selected Regions, 1607-1914 (in German)
  
• Speyer, Germany, Domestic Help, 1875-1914 (in German)
  
• Surrey, England, Calendar of Prisoners, 1848-1902
  
• Surrey, England, Mental Hospital Admissions, 1867-1900
  
• Sweden, Selected Indexed Death Records, 1840-1860 and 1878-1942(in Swedish) 
  
• U.S. World War I Mothers' Pilgrimage, 1929 
  
• U.S., Applications for Authorization for Inter-Island Travel, 1947-1952
  
• U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985 
  
• UK, British Army Muster Books and Pay Lists, 1812-1817
  
• Web: Lawrence County, Alabama, Burial Index, 1835-2014
  
• Web: Minnesota, Birth Index, 1900-1934 
  

For a complete list of all added/updated collections, go to 

http://www.ancestry.com/cs/recent-collections

I hope that some of these are what you have been waiting for!

Chronicling America, the newspaper collection available for online research of United States historic newspapers, regularly updates their collection.

Here are the updated titles for June, 2015.  Some are new titles and some are added to an existing title's pages in the database. There are 26 in total from 9 different states plus the District of Columbia. (Please note that some newspapers may be listed multiple times because they were updated more than once by the Library of Congress during the month)









Connecticut

• Updated content for Republican farmer. (Danbury, Conn.) 
  
• Updated content for The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 
  

District of Columbia

• Updated content for Washington sentinel. (Washington [D.C.]) 
  
• Updated content for The daily union. (Washington [D.C.]) 
  
• Updated content for The Madisonian. (Washington City [D.C.]) 
  

Idaho

• Updated content for The Kendrick gazette. (Kendrick, Idaho) 
  

Louisiana

• Updated content for The Lake Charles echo. (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 
  
• Updated content for Lake Charles commercial. (Lake Charles, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 
  
• Updated content for The weekly echo. (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 
  

Minnesota

• Updated content for The National leader. (Minneapolis, Minn.) 
  

Montana

• Updated content for The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent. (Broadus, Mont.) 
  
• Updated content for The Semi-weekly miner. (Butte, Mont.) 
  
• Updated content for The Broadus independent. (Broadus, Mont.) 
  
• Updated content for The Dillon tribune. (Dillon, Mont.) 
  

North Dakota

• Updated content for The Nonpartisan leader. (Fargo, N.D.) 
  

Oregon

• Updated content for Roseburg review. (Roseburg, Or.) 
  
• Updated content for The Oregon mist. (St. Helens, Columbia County, Or.) 
  
• Updated content for The Douglas independent. (Roseburg, Or.) 
  

South Carolina

• Updated content for The tribune. (Beaufort, S.C.) 
  
• Updated content for Cheraw chronicle. (Cheraw, S.C.) 
  
• Updated content for Port Royal commercial and Beaufort County Republican. (Port Royal, S.C.) 
  
• Updated content for Beaufort Republican. (Beaufort, S.C.) 
  
• Updated content for The Pageland journal. (Pageland, S.C.) 
  
• Updated content for The Chesterfield advertiser. (Chesterfield, S.C.) 
• Updated content for The Union daily times. volume (None) 

West Virginia

• Updated content for The Labor argus. (Charleston, W. Va.) 
  

Good luck and happy hunting!

For more links for these states and others - please see the Newspapers! page on this website.

FamilySearch continues to add or update their records collections at a fast pace for us to search.




For the month of June, 2015 the added/updated collections are:

• Australia, New South Wales, Census (fragment), 1891 
  
• BillionGraves Index 
  
• Brazil, Pernambuco, Civil Registration, 1804-2014 
  
• Brazil, São Paulo, Immigration Cards, 1902-1980 
  
• California Death Index, 1905-1939 
  
• Delaware Vital Records, 1680-1971 
  
• District of Columbia Marriages, 1811-1950 
  
• Florida Marriages, 1830-1993 
  
• Florida, Fort Lauderdale Crew Lists, 1939-1945 
  
• France, Finistère, Quimper et Léon Diocese, Catholic Parish Records, 1772-1863 
  
• Germany, Saxony, Dresden, Citizens' Documents and Business Licenses, 1820-1962 
  
• Illinois, County Marriages, 1810-1934 
  
• India, Bihar, Koilukh, Pandit Kirtinand Jha, Maithil Brahmin Genealogical Records, 1750-1990 
  
• India, Hindu Pilgrimage Records, 1194-2015 
  
• Iowa, State Census, 1925 
  
• Ireland, Petty Sessions Court Registers, 1828-1912 
  
• Italy, Caltanissetta, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1820-1935 
  
• Italy, Cremona, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1744-1942 
  
• Italy, Grosseto, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1851-1907 
  
• Italy, L'Aquila, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1809-1865, 1911-1943 
  
• Italy, Pesaro e Urbino, Pesaro, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1808-1813, 1861-1865 
  
• Italy, Pesaro e Urbino, Urbino, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1866-1942 
  
• Italy, Ragusa, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1900-1940 
  
• Italy, Toscana, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1804-1874 
  
• Louisiana First Registration Draft Cards, compiled 1940-1945 
  
• Massachusetts, Boston Passenger Lists Index, 1899-1940 
  
• Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1627-2001 
  
• Mexico, Baja California and Baja California Sur, Catholic Church Records, 1750-1984 
  
• Mexico, Chihuahua, Catholic Church Records, 1632-1958 
  
• Mexico, Guanajuato, Catholic Church Records, 1519-1984 
  
• Mexico, Hidalgo, Catholic Church Records, 1546-1971 
  
• Mexico, Jalisco, Catholic Church Records, 1590-1979 
  
• Mexico, Michoacán, Catholic Church Records, 1555-1996 
  
• Mexico, Oaxaca, Catholic Church Records, 1559-1988 
  
• Mexico, Tamaulipas, Catholic Church Records, 1703-1964 
  
• Michigan Obituaries, 1820-2006 
  
• Michigan, Births, 1867-1902 
  
• New York, State Census, 1865 
  
• Newfoundland, Vital Records, 1840-1949 
  
• North Carolina, Probate Records, 1735-1970 
  
• Nova Scotia Births, 1864-1877 
  
• Nova Scotia Deaths, 1864-1877 
  
• Nova Scotia Marriages, 1864-1918 
  
• Peru, Callao, Civil Registration, 1874-1996 
  
• Perú, Lima, Civil Registration, 1874-1996 
  
• Philippines, Civil Registration (Archives Division), 1902-1945 
  
• Philippines, Manila, Civil Registration, 1899-1984 
  
• Philippines, Negros Occidental, Roman Catholic Diocese of Bacolod, Parish Registers, 1755-1976 
  
• South Dakota, School Records, 1879-1970 
• Spain, Province of Barcelona, Municipal Records, 1387-1950
  
• Spain, Province of Gerona, Municipal Records, 1566-1956 
  
• Spain, Province of Granada, Municipal Records, 1607-1955 
  
• Spain, Province of Valencia, Miscellaneous Records, 1251-1950 
  
• Tennessee, County Marriages, 1790-1950 
  
• United States Census, 1790 
  
• United States Census, 1800 
  
• United States Index to Service Records, War with Spain, 1898 
  
• United States Public Records, 1970-2009 
  
• United States, Freedmen's Branch Records, 1872-1878 
  
• United States, Freedmen's Bureau Hospital and Medical Records, 1865-1872 
  
• United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014 
  
• United States, Panama Canal Zone, Employment Records and Sailing lists, 1905-1937 
  
• Utah Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel Database, 1847-1868 
  
• Utah, Uintah County Discharge Records, 1893-2009 
  
• Utah, Uintah County Land and Property Records, 1888-2004 
  
• Utah, Uintah County Marriage Records, 1888-2015 
  
• Utah, Uintah County Naturalization and Citizenship Records, 1888-1929 
  
• Vermont, St. Albans Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1924 
  
• Vermont, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1732-2005 
  

For a complete list of all added/updated collections, go to 

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list

I hope that some of these are what you have been waiting for!