Researching With Newspapers

 

Timeline and Background

 

1690 – “Publick Occurrences” appeared in Boston, covered European news, suppressed after 1^st issue

1720’s – newspaper weeklies appeared in Boston, NYC, and Philadelphia

1780’s – newspaper dailies appeared in Philadelphia and NYC

Federal period era – “six penny” press format, greater world news, little local news

1830’s – “penny press” appears, aims for new audience, more local and regional news

1860’s – 2700+ papers in US, Civil War news made big impact

1890’s – yellow journalism, ethnic press

1900 – 12,000 papers in US

WWI – “modern” newspaper age begins

 

“six penny press”                                                          “penny press”

Subscription, delivered to office, homes                         Sold on street by newsboys and peddlers

Targeted business, merchants, civic leaders                   Targeted mechanics and servant girls

Covered national, world, commerce, literature   Covered local politics, courts, scandals, gossip

 

In 1793 Congress passed a law which allowed newspaper publishers to send through the post office one copy of each issue free to other newspaper publishers.  This was how editors got news from other localities.  Some editors received 50 to 60 papers per week.

 

Mid to Late 19^th Century small town newspapers

-         usually weekly, 4 to 8 pages

-         entrepreneur, owner, printer, editor all same person

-         sold ads and exchanges

-         repetitive layout and content format

-         acted as community diary and promoter

-         usually declared political party affiliation which influenced position on issues

-         often ephemeral, issues can be hard to locate today

-         may provide unique details about families and relationships

-         size and completeness differ depending on view of editors

 

What Information You Can Find

 

Basics include

-         vitals through obituaries and death notices, marriage announcements, sometimes births

-         milestone events such as graduations, and military service

-         involvement in news events, and legal announcements

 

Many newspaper editors soon realized that by targeting mass appeal they could sell more papers.  This meant that they needed more “eyeballs”.  Thus publishing “names” would increase the circulation.

 

Lists of names (often included addresses or towns)

-         hotel arrivals

-         vacationers

-         ships’ passengers

-         wills and probate announcements

-         delinquent taxpayers

-         resort area newspapers

-         unclaimed letters

-         draft lotteries, example: Civil War covered in 1863, included names and addresses

 

Keep in mind that small town editors often “borrowed” and reprinted interesting stories from other newspapers as “filler”.   So even if your local town’s newspaper haven’t been digitized yet, try searching the digitized newspapers from surrounding cities or even those from more distant locales.

 

What Newspapers Existed

 

You can use bibliographies and directories to find out what newspapers have appeared. 

 

Gregory, Winifred, ed. American Newspapers, 1821-1936: A Union List of Files Available in the United States and Canada, New York, 1937.

 

Brigham, Clarence.  History and Bibliography of American Newspapers: 1690-1820, Worcester, Mass.: American Antiquarian Society, 1947.

 

The 34 volume Rowell’s and Ayer’s directory is now available online at the Library of Congress - http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/news_research_tools/ayersdirectory.html - covers newspapers that appeared from 1869 through 1919.

 

Where You Can Find Them

 

You can then use catalogs and indexes to find out where copies are located, and also copies that are on microfilm and/or microform. 

 

Newspapers in Microform, Library of Congress, 1984 – in 3 massive volumes, now available online as PDFs at http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/news_research_tools/newspapersinmf.html

 

The United States Newspaper Program - http://www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html - offers searchable indexes of newspapers in original form and on microfilm and details where these collections can be found across the country.

 

National Digital Newspaper Program (Chronicling America) – next phase of the United States Newspaper Program – visit online at http://www.neh.gov/projects/ndnp.html

 

International Newspaper Digitization Projects – visit http://icon.crl.edu/digitization.htm

 

University of Pennsylvania Library has many links to digitized newspapers available online at http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/guides/hist/onlinenewspapers.html

 

Sources:

Talk given by Meldon J. Wolfgang III, “Beyond the Basics – Tips and Techniques for Using Newspapers in Genealogical Research”, MSOG, Worcester Chapter meeting, March 6, 2010.