One of the most overlooked ways of filling in pieces of your family’s story is through old newspapers. The search has gotten much easier in the past 10 years thanks to the Internet, but even without it, great finds are possible.
If you have a specific event/date, your search will be much easier. Look for newspapers in your ancestor’s area during the appropriate period of time. There is no hard and fast rule to this. Many factors impact publication of all articles; such as whether it is in a daily or weekly newspaper. A daily paper may print an article about a prominent citizen’s death, or a death notice the next day (or, in larger cities, in an evening edition) and then follow with the official obituary within days. The family is responsible for an obituary, but an obituary in a large city will usually be printed within days of the death or at least within a week. In a weekly paper, it may be a couple of weeks after. Legal notices must be published during the will probating process, and it could be months or years before the first and last legal notice is printed.
Local libraries usually have archives of local papers, whether the actual papers themselves, or on microfilm (usually thanks to the LDS church). Fogler Library at the University of Maine (Orono campus) has an amazing collection of Maine newspapers. The University’s goal is to have a copy of every paper printed in Maine, and they are close to that goal. The Bangor Public Library has microfilm of all the old Bangor Daily News and its precursor, the Bangor Whig and Courier, as well as some of the old nationally recognized papers.
Online, there are millions of articles and entire newspaper archives which can be searched and printed or ordered. Some are only available through membership or at libraries or the LDS Family Search Centers. However, millions of pages and articles are free; such as the Library of Congress which has 3.47 million pages available free at chroniclingamerica.loc .gov Here you can search pages, or search for the title of newspapers published in the United States from 1690 to the present. There are some pleasant surprises, such as The New York Times allowing you to print up to 20 articles a month (1851-1923) for free, at query.nytimes.com/search /query
The best reason to read old newspapers may simply be to get an idea of what the community was like during the life and times of your ancestor. Old newspapers did not separate articles by type, so you may find your ancestor’s obituary next to ads for “snake oil” and the latest steamship sailing schedule. The real fun, though, is what you find by accident! Some of the funniest and saddest family stories I have, I found this way. I remember reading about an ancestor who was let out of jail so he could go to Monson – to get bail money – so he could get out of jail! My how times, and trust levels have changed!
I trust I have convinced you to search?
Editor’s note: Columnist Nina Brawn of Dover-Foxcroft, who has been doing genealogy for over 30 years, is a freelance genealogy researcher, speaker and teacher. Reader e-mails are welcome at ninabrawn@gmail.com. The Aroostook County Genealogical Society meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at the Cary Medical Center’s Chan Education Center, 163 Van Buren Road, Caribou, at 6:30 p.m. Guests and prospective members are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501.
