Five Ways to Research Family Genealogy in Historic Newspapers
The pages of historic newspapers contain details that can be helpful when researching your family genealogy.
By looking up obituaries, headlines, society columns and notices, you can find information about your family in the past.
The descriptions, advertisements and stories in the paper are important sources to you a glimpse of the lifestyle lived by your ancestors.
Here are five great ways to use historic newspapers for family genealogy.
1.
Vital Events - Births, marriages and deaths are often recorded in newspapers.
Birth records will give you the name of the child and the parents, and often the names of the siblings and grandparents along with the date of birth and location.
Marriages will mention the maiden name of the bride and usually both sets of parents' names.
Members of the wedding party are likely to be relatives and close friends.
Obituaries can yield the birthplace of the individual, other family members, employer information and other details.
Anniversary notices often provide an entire list of the celebrants' offspring and their children along with the details of when and where the couple were married.
2.
School Events, Club and Sporting Notices - The members of various community organizations are often mentioned in reports of local events.
Your ancestor may have been on a winning baseball team or in a Boy Scout troop mentioned in an old newspaper.
They may appear on an honor roll list or in a graduation or team photo.
Finding a photo of someone in your family tree can be an added bonus for your family genealogy research.
3.
Community news - Small town and rural area historic newspapers can be particularly useful for conveying social news, possibly adding to your family genealogy.
Trips made by individuals, visiting relatives and local social events can reveal a lot of information.
4.
Natural disasters - Crop failures, tornadoes, bad storms and other natural disasters that may have impacted your ancestors often make the historic newspapers.
Even though your family may not be mentioned they may have lived through the event and it can provide a better picture of what life was like for your ancestors during that period.
5.
Expand the Search - Don't limit your search to only the years that your family lived in the area.
Historic newspapers often feature articles or stories of events that happened in the past.
Historic newspapers can be found in many places including your public library or state archives.
Start your search online at Google News Archives.
There are also many subscription based sources of historic newspapers.
Historic newspapers are one of the many resources useful for discovering your family tree.
Visit to get your free copy of the Genealogy Research Checklist to aid your family genealogy research.
By looking up obituaries, headlines, society columns and notices, you can find information about your family in the past.
The descriptions, advertisements and stories in the paper are important sources to you a glimpse of the lifestyle lived by your ancestors.
Here are five great ways to use historic newspapers for family genealogy.
1.
Vital Events - Births, marriages and deaths are often recorded in newspapers.
Birth records will give you the name of the child and the parents, and often the names of the siblings and grandparents along with the date of birth and location.
Marriages will mention the maiden name of the bride and usually both sets of parents' names.
Members of the wedding party are likely to be relatives and close friends.
Obituaries can yield the birthplace of the individual, other family members, employer information and other details.
Anniversary notices often provide an entire list of the celebrants' offspring and their children along with the details of when and where the couple were married.
2.
School Events, Club and Sporting Notices - The members of various community organizations are often mentioned in reports of local events.
Your ancestor may have been on a winning baseball team or in a Boy Scout troop mentioned in an old newspaper.
They may appear on an honor roll list or in a graduation or team photo.
Finding a photo of someone in your family tree can be an added bonus for your family genealogy research.
3.
Community news - Small town and rural area historic newspapers can be particularly useful for conveying social news, possibly adding to your family genealogy.
Trips made by individuals, visiting relatives and local social events can reveal a lot of information.
4.
Natural disasters - Crop failures, tornadoes, bad storms and other natural disasters that may have impacted your ancestors often make the historic newspapers.
Even though your family may not be mentioned they may have lived through the event and it can provide a better picture of what life was like for your ancestors during that period.
5.
Expand the Search - Don't limit your search to only the years that your family lived in the area.
Historic newspapers often feature articles or stories of events that happened in the past.
Historic newspapers can be found in many places including your public library or state archives.
Start your search online at Google News Archives.
There are also many subscription based sources of historic newspapers.
Historic newspapers are one of the many resources useful for discovering your family tree.
Visit to get your free copy of the Genealogy Research Checklist to aid your family genealogy research.
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