Newspapers

What can be found in newspapers? Birth announcements, marriage announcements, obituaries, and more can be found. Newspapers, especially small town newspapers are a great resource for biographical information. A small town newspaper may only publish an edition once a week, but it will include details not found elsewhere. Everything is news in a small town.The newspaper may have an article mentioning a family gathering and naming every person in attendance. I found a newspaper article that describes in detail the bride's dress and gives a brief background of both the bride and groom.

Where can newspapers be found? Many newspapers are located in public & university libraries and historical & genealogical societies. Contact the libraries or societies nearest to where your ancestors lived to get access.

Some newspapers are being digitized. Many are accessible through subscription websites. However there are a few free websites that have digitized newspapers. Chronicling America is a project under the Library of Congress and has newspapers from 1818-1910. Currently this site has newspapers from: California, District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Another website is the U.S. Newspaper Program, this site contains a list of all the states and directs you to the website where digitized newspapers for that state can be found. Both of these websites are adding content regularly, if you don't have success now try again later.

County & Local Histories

A great source that is often overlooked are published County Histories. As a general rule when ever you are researching in the U.S., find the county histories for the areas where your ancestors lived. County Histories contain a wealth of information about the area, history, economy, politics and more. The first part of these books contains topical chapters including chapters for each township within the county. The last part of the book will contain biographical sketches of county residents. Residents had to pay to be included in the publication. If there is an index check it for your surname and any other surnames of those who married in and out of the family. Do not be disappointed if your ancestor did not have a sketch included. The real treasure is found in the text of early chapters. Using the history found in a county history can help to flesh out the lives of your ancestors.

The Family History Library has filmed many county histories and these are available on microfilm. BYU has a collection of digitized county histories located in the Family History Archive. Another resource for county histories is the local Historical or Genealogical Society, where your family lived.