For anyone who has previously read any of the articles on this website - you must know that I am a big proponent of searching newspaper articles for obtaining nuggets that add color to the stories of your ancestors.
Fortunately, for those of us who live far from the residence states of our ancestors, there are a lot of online repositories that provide the opportunity to find relevant newspaper articles. And they generally provide indexes. Of course, if you are close to the places where your ancestors lived, you can always visit state repositories and local libraries to pore through old newspapers. In either case it is a very fun exercise.
Beyond finding obituaries, marriage announcements and birth announcements, I have been quite fortunate to find hundreds of articles about my relatives and ancestors.
As an example of the types of stories that I have found, below are some samples. It might provide some inspiration to you to search for articles that may provide the color and what I call the 3rd dimension - those articles that describe the events in our ancestors lives that prove that they are human and much more than three dates and locations.
I can tell you that I did NOT know that any of these events had occurred prior to finding them in newspapers.
And the list goes on and on. Below are some sample Headlines - all discovered from searching newspapers and all from articles about my ancestors:
Fortunately, for those of us who live far from the residence states of our ancestors, there are a lot of online repositories that provide the opportunity to find relevant newspaper articles. And they generally provide indexes. Of course, if you are close to the places where your ancestors lived, you can always visit state repositories and local libraries to pore through old newspapers. In either case it is a very fun exercise.
Beyond finding obituaries, marriage announcements and birth announcements, I have been quite fortunate to find hundreds of articles about my relatives and ancestors.
As an example of the types of stories that I have found, below are some samples. It might provide some inspiration to you to search for articles that may provide the color and what I call the 3rd dimension - those articles that describe the events in our ancestors lives that prove that they are human and much more than three dates and locations.
I can tell you that I did NOT know that any of these events had occurred prior to finding them in newspapers.
- Great Great Uncle Max was nearly murdered in his barber shop because he had sold a prior business to a couple who thought he had defrauded them, and who within a day of the attempted murder, committed suicide.
- Then there was great great Uncle Henry, who with his wife, pimped out his step-daughter and her friend and ended up spending almost a year in prison as a result.
- And I didn't know that my great great grandfather Louis had invented anything until I saw a newspaper article complimenting him on his gas illumination machine invention in the 1880s. That inspired me to search Google Patents to find the actual patent.
- On more than 2 occasions I discovered that there were a couple of husbands and wives that deserted their spouses - all found via newspaper articles.
- One of my distant cousins sued her fiancee for breach of contract when he impregnated her in 1899 and refused to marry her. She did not win the case but he was held in jail for several months pending trial.
And the list goes on and on. Below are some sample Headlines - all discovered from searching newspapers and all from articles about my ancestors:
Now don't these headlines represent the start of an interesting story? Yes they do, and by the way they are all part of my own ancestors stories.
So the question is - how do you find newspaper articles for your own ancestors that will inspire you to write stories about them? Here are just five of the more popular repositories and databases available online (and my personal favorites:
So the question is - how do you find newspaper articles for your own ancestors that will inspire you to write stories about them? Here are just five of the more popular repositories and databases available online (and my personal favorites:
| Newspaper research Newspaper research 1836 - 1922 Early California newspapers Newspaper research Newspapers plus lots more | Subscription database of newspapers Free database of newspapers Free database of newspapers Subscription database of newspapers Free database of newspapers and more |
So, my recommendation is:
Go For It! It is likely to be the MOST fun that you will have researching!
Go For It! It is likely to be the MOST fun that you will have researching!
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