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9 Clever Newspaper Research Techniques for Genealogy

9/18/2014

4 Comments

 
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As an aficionado of newspaper research for genealogy and family history, I have done a lot of searching. Most recently it has been of the online variety.

One can be quite successful in spite of the limitations of poor quality source material, scanning deficiencies and OCR limitations.


The best results are usually because of good planning, rather than simple surname searching and hoping. Here are a few techniques that you can employ to find that elusive ancestor article that you may have been trying to find:

  1. Looking for a marriage license announcement? These were aplenty in older newspapers, and generally listed the bride and groom's full name and address.  Don't just enter their name - if you have access to city directories to find their address (or know it already), why not include the surname and the city name, or the surname and the street name, etc. Unless your ancestor is named John Smith who lived on Main Street, using this technique might turn up something.
  2. I have written before about deliberately misspelling surnames because of how the index does not represent the original text because of quality, scanning and OCR limitations.  See more of this in "Newspaper Research Tip - Change The Letters"
  3. Looking for an obituary? Try adding the word "beloved" or "dear" to your search criteria in addition to the name. Those words are in many if not most obituaries.  Or the word "brother" or "sister" or "wife" or Husband."  You get the idea.
  4. How about combining the surname and occupation of your target ancestor, or their surname and name of the lodge, church, or club they belonged to?  If the site offers a proximity search capability, you could try using "25 words apart". That way if your ancestor is in an article talking about their club, etc. you might pick up something. The same works for schools attended as well.
  5. I have written about this previously and the idea actually came from a reader and is a great one - try leaving out the names and just search for an address of where they lived (or worked). Check out Why You Should Search for Addresses in Newspapers and read Diane's terrific example of success using this technique.
  6. Remember that married women were not always addressed with their first name in a newspaper article, but were written as Mrs. Robert Smith for example, regardless if their name was Mildred, Margaret, or Mary.  So incorporate that into your search criteria.
  7. Try abbreviations for names, such as "Wm" for William, or "Jno" for John, or "Jos" for Joseph, and "Robt" for Robert, just to name a few. Here is a terrific list from Genealogy In Time.
  8. Looking for a birth announcement?  Try adding the words "Born to" or "Born to the wife of" to the surname of the father in your search box.
  9. I have said this before and I will say it again - if the site has an "Advanced Search" capability - use it always. You will have many more options at your disposal.

Try some of these and I suspect you will achieve a higher degree of success.  What different clever ideas have you used as search criteria?

___________________________________

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4 Comments

Small Town Papers - Another Useful Historic Newspaper Research Site

9/18/2014

4 Comments

 
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Shame on yours truly for not being thorough! Over the past year, I have done a lot of research to discover online sites for historic newspaper research for genealogy and family history purposes. The end result of all that research is a set of about 60 articles that list free and subscription links by U.S. state and Canadian province. These can be found in the Newspapers! page here. There are about 10,000 newspapers and inks available.

I was aware of a site entitled Small Town Papers at the time I was researching and writing these articles, and in fact I looked at several of the over 250 newspapers available on that site. Apparently the ones I looked at only had papers from 1995 on - not what I would call "historic." Thus these newspapers were not included in my articles and link lists.

But thanks to a loyal reader, my mistake has been rectified. Indeed there are historic newspapers available for you to browse and search, some as early as 1846.

I would encourage you to make Small Town Papers part of your newspaper research repertoire. I also encourage you strongly to read their Terms of Use as they are quite strict when compared to other free newspapers sites. Copying and downloading of pages found have specific rules and limitations. Always read about copyright and use "rules" on any newspaper site!

Lastly, sorry for my omission.  I hope that use of this site helps you find some interesting articles about your ancestors.

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United States Online Historical Photos Links

9/1/2014

0 Comments

 
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Genealogists spend a lot of time trying to find birth, marriage, and death dates and locations to "prove" who should be in their family tree and establish who rightfully are their ancestors. This of course is an important pursuit.

But there are multiple dimensions to family history research.  For me - leaning the stories of my ancestors through personal recollection, letters or newspaper articles is really fun. And even more fun is having in your hands (or on a computer screen) the image from a photograph of one of my ancestors for the first time.  

We acquire these photos from our living relatives or from recently passed relatives' photo albums. But are there other resources?  Yes there are.  One doesn't have to be famous necessarily to show up in the thousands of archives all over the country.

It is important to a complete research that one attempts to understand the environment that surrounds our ancestors' lives if one wants to truly appreciate what they went through. So not only are portraits and candid photos important, but photos of their surroundings can be very useful to your genealogy research.

Below is a list of all 50 state articles that I have recently written, which include hundreds of links and millions of online available images.  Below this list are some links to special American collections that are not based on a single state.

I encourage you to take advantage of these links and find interesting photos of your ancestors and their surroundings. In other words - click on the links below, proceed to the article and find the links that may be of interest to you.


State Articles
  • Alabama Online Historical Photos Research
  • Alaska Online Historical Photos Research
  • Arizona Online Historical Photos Research
  • Arkansas Online Historical Photos Research
  • California Online Historical Photos Research
  • Colorado Online Historical Photos Research
  • Connecticut Online Historical Photos Research
  • Delaware Online Historical Photos Research
  • Florida Online Historical Photos Research
  • Georgia Online Historical Photos Research
  • Hawaii Online Historical Photos Research
  • Idaho Online Historical Photos Research
  • Illinois Online Historical Photos Research
  • Indiana Online Historical Photos Research
  • Iowa Online Historical Photos Research
  • Kansas Online Historical Photos Research
  • Kentucky Online Historical Photos Research
  • Louisiana Online Historical Photos Research
  • Maine Online Historical Photos Research
  • Maryland Online Historical Photos Research
  • Massachusetts Online Historical Photos Research
  • Michigan Online Historical Photos Research
  • Minnesota Online Historical Photos Research
  • Mississippi Online Historical Photos Research
  • Missouri Online Historical Photos Research
  • Montana Online Historical Photos Research
  • Nebraska Online Historical Photos Research
  • Nevada Online Historical Photos Research
  • New Hampshire Online Historical Photos Research
  • New Jersey Online Historical Photos Research
  • New Mexico Online Historical Photos Research
  • New York Online Historical Photos Research
  • North Carolina Online Historical Photos Research
  • North Dakota Online Historical Photos Research
  • Ohio Online Historical Photos Research
  • Oklahoma Online Historical Photos Research
  • Oregon Online Historical Photos Research
  • Pennsylvania Online Historical Photos Research
  • Rhode Island Online Historical Photos Research
  • South Carolina Online Historical Photos Research
  • South Dakota Online Historical Photos Research
  • Tennessee Online Historical Photos Research
  • Texas Online Historical Photos Research
  • Utah Online Historical Photos Research
  • Vermont Online Historical Photos Research
  • Virginia Online Historical Photos Research
  • Washington Online Historical Photos Research
  • West Virginia Online Historical Photos Research
  • Wisconsin Online Historical Photos Research
  • Wyoming Online Historical Photos Research

Special Collections
  • Civil Rights Movement Photos
  • Civil War in the American South
  • Documenting the American South
  • Military History Photos
  • Civil War Photos
  • U.S. Army Center of Military History
  • Women's Suffrage Movement Photos

General  and Multi-State Sites
  • American Museum of Natural History
  • Digital Public Library of America
  • Internet Archive Book Images
  • Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
  • National Archives - Digital Photograph Collections
  • Old Pictures
  • Smithsonian Images


And check back to the Photos! page on this site for more links and pertinent articles about photo research.

___________________________________

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