August 26, 2005

Newspapers and Periodicals

The Newspapers & Periodicals Collection lets you discover a wealth of information about your ancestors from many different kinds of newspapers, magazines, and periodicals. These types of sources can often supplement public records and provide information that is not recorded anywhere else. You can learn more about your ancestor's lives by placing them in the context of their daily lives.

For example, a newspaper account of a marriage might indicate that it took place at the home of the bride's parents, perhaps even naming them; it might list the occupation of the groom, or indicate that the ceremony was part of a double wedding in which the bride's sister was also married. These types of details are not likely to appear on a marriage record at the local courthouse.

Historical Newspapers
The newspaper collection at Ancestry.com is the largest historical newspaper database on the Internet. You can search or browse newspaper titles from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. These newspapers date from the 1700s to 2001. Because each page is a single digital image, you can print individual articles from your computer and preserve them for your family scrapbook.

Newspapers can be used to find valuable genealogical information about historical events in the lives of our ancestors. They supply all sorts of clues about vital statistics (birth, marriage, and death announcements), obituaries, local news, biographical sketches, legal notices, immigration, migration, and other historical items that place our ancestors in the context of the society in which they lived.

View a newspaper article about the assassination of President Lincoln

Obituary Collection
The Obituary Collection contains the same records as the obituary collection included in the Birth, Marriage, and Death records. This collection contains recent obituaries (from 1999 to the present) from hundreds of newspapers. The records include source information and links to the full obituary text. If you're searching for a recently deceased ancestor or a living relative who might be mentioned in an obituary, this may be a great place to start.

The wealth of genealogical and biographical information to be found in an informative obituary makes the effort of searching for one worthwhile. For many of our ancestors (and relatives), the obituary is the only "biographical sketch" that was ever devoted to that individual. In addition to names, dates, and places of birth, marriage, and death, the obituary often identifies relationships of the deceased as child, sibling, parent, grandparent, etc., to numerous other individuals. This wealth of information can often answer questions or open up new research avenues.

Free Historical Newspaper Images
This feature contains free newspaper images from some of the most interesting events in recent history. You will find articles on the assassination of President Lincoln, the sinking of the Titanic, the murders of Jack the Ripper, and the Korean War, and more. You can also find human interest articles such as the marriage of Elvis Presley, the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, and the cloning of the first sheep.

View a newspaper article about the sinking of the Titanic

Periodical Source Index (PERSI)
PERSI is the largest and most widely-used subject index covering genealogy and local history periodicals written in English and French (Canada). The collection dates from approximately 1800. There are currently over 1.7 million searchable records and nearly 6,000 different periodicals. Note: PERSI is not a full-text index; individual names that are mentioned in passing will not appear in the index.


Interesting Facts

  • Newsletters have existed since at least the second century. The Romans distributed political pamphlets called "acta,"; newssheets appeared in China during the late Han Dynasty (circa 200 A.D.)
  • The first regularly published newspaper in what is now the United States was the Boston News-Letter, which was begun in 1704.
  • Today, almost two thousand daily newspapers are distributed in America alone.
  • Early American newspapers are full of notices that list runaway slaves, indentured servants, and apprentices.
  • Newspapers can contain a multitude of genealogical information-obituaries; notices of births, marriages, and deaths; legal notices; estate transactions; biographies, military, immigration.