Genealogy’s Star: Online Digital Newspaper Collections by State — The Lists Introduced

There are quite a few collections of newspapers that cover extensive blocks of time and geography, i.e. they include more than one state’s newspapers. It is important to understand that there is some overlap between these huge online collections, but any thorough genealogical search would necessarily require searching every single collection. Of course, that could become a problem since most of these collections are subscription based and not only does the genealogist have to find all of the collections, they also have to figure out how to access them and possibly pay for the content. I say this so that the potential researcher does not feel comfortable ignoring the subscription based sites and only researching the free online content.

You might also recognize that the effectiveness of the various search engines and the degree to which the optical character recognition programs work affects the ability of a researcher to find specific content using a search. There is really no way that a careful researcher can be assured that there are not important facts about any given ancestor other than to do a page-by-page search, assuming that the online project provides access to multiple pages of the same search. Researchers should also recognize the fact that helpful information may be contained in paid advertising and display advertising in the newspaper digitization project may not have been included, especially if the advertising consisted of images rather than text. But if you come from an old genealogical tradition, you are used to searching microfilm page and page and this is no different.

As it turns out, unlike digital maps websites, there are exhaustive online references to newspaper collections listing each state of the United States in detail. It also turns out that there are a huge number of websites, far more than you could imagine. There are hundreds of websites. Just think what a great opportunity this is. You will never run out of research opportunities.

There are a substantial online lists of available digitized online newspaper collections. See the following websites for lists:

• Historical Newspapers Online — University Libraries, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• Wikipedia:List of online newspaper archives
• Historical Newspapers Online — Penn Libraries, University of Pennsylvania, an extensive list by state of online newspaper collections
• Providence College Research Guides, Newspapers — A good start at a list
• Accessible Archives — a good collection of links to online archives, including newspapers

Here is a list of the multi-state online digital newspaper projects that I have found. I do not pretend that this is an exhaustive list, because these collections are sometimes hard to find online and also because new projects pop up frequently. Just because I was unable to find a specific newspaper project for any of the states or territories does not mean that there are no online digitized newspapers from that jurisdiction, any such content may be included in one or more of the large collections.

• Library of Congress, Chronicling America, National Digital Newspaper Project — be sure an note the US Newspaper Directory, 1690 – Present — Free
• NewspaperArchive.com — Subscription
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers — usually available only through libraries and universities
• NewsBank.com — usually available only through libraries and universities
• World Newspaper Archive — part of NewsBank.com, usually available only through libraries and universities
• GenealogyBank.com — part of NewsBank.com, Subscription
• Google News — a huge collection of back issues of various newspapers by name

[NOTE: Here is a list of regional and national lists of online digital newspaper collections Genealogy’s Star included with their state lists:]

• SmallTownPapers.com
• Densho Digital Archive
• Troy University, The Wiregrass Archives
• Internet Public Library (ipl2), Newspapers and Magazines
• Google News — Remember to search on Google for newspaper titles
• Library of Congress, Chronicling America — Remember to search for additional copies of newspapers in the US Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present
• BYU-Idaho, David O. McKay Library, Newspaper Databases
• Northwest History Database
• Pacific Northwest Regional Newspaper and Periodical Index
• Denver Public Library, Western History and Genealogy
• USNPL, US Newspapers
• The Internet Archive — search by title or state
• Paper of Record
• Valley of the Shadow, Civil War Era Newspapers
• Providence College, Research Guides, U.S. Digital Newspaper Collections
• Texas A and M University, Newspapers
• University of Arizona, Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press
• Harvard Library Research Guides
• Cornell University Library, Caribbean Newspapers on the Internet
• Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History
• Georgia State University Library, Southern Labor Archives
• The King Center, Digital Archives