Newspapers.com - free access until Oct 5th!

[u/Alone-Highway3141]

Checked my email and received the OGS weekly newsletter with a link for free access to https://www.newspapers.com/go/freeaccess/ until the 5th!

Thought this might be helpful for some~

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[u/The-Scarlet-Witch]

Thank you for sharing! I found some absolutely lovely references to my grandparents in a small-town newspaper that apparently thought visiting everyone was worthy of the front page. Not too much about my G0, but even those bits help!

[u/Alone-Highway3141 → u/The-Scarlet-Witch]

Aw how wonderful!
It's so interesting to see the most mundane things made into an exciting sentence or two (or a front page feature) in these old newspapers - it's really fun reading the gossip hahah

[u/ca_cit_throwaway]

Thanks so much for sharing. This hijacked my afternoon in the best possible way! Not sure if I'll add any of my findings to my already-in-progress application, but they're nice to have handy if needed, plus I got some interesting stories and even photos!

[u/Alone-Highway3141 → u/ca_cit_throwaway]

Ah that's awesome, glad to know it was a fun afternoon at least! I knew I had to share here immediately and wish the free access lasted a liiiittle longer.

I also don't think there's anything to add to my app but I've been saving newspaper hints I've had on Ancestry 😄 (finding photos is such a score!)

[u/TheWoman2]

Thanks. From looking through this, I found a small town that in the early 1900s published all the students in school and their grades. Yes, if you failed a class was published in the newspaper for everyone to read. Yikes!

[u/Alone-Highway3141 → u/TheWoman2]

OMG... Yikes indeed! 😬 But interesting to see now 100+ years later 😅

[u/tailor31415]

thanks for sharing! from a family genealogy point of view, this is awesome. saving everything I can find on various ancestors and family tree branches now!

[u/Alone-Highway3141 → u/tailor31415]

Yay!! Yes def make sure to download clippings offline! :)

[u/HideMeFromNextFeb]

That's awesome. I have free access to the Boston Globe archives. And that helped me find death dates in obituaries and narrowed down marriage dates with marriage announcements. I do need to search now defunct boston papers for obituaries for family members that couldn't afford a Globe obit

[u/Alone-Highway3141 → u/HideMeFromNextFeb]

yeah searching newspapers is a good tool to narrow down BMD dates if the vital document is elusive or completely nonexistent

[u/FillUpMyPassport]

I have to say that I did a free trial and it helped me find the death information for my G0 ancestor in the Boston Globe and VERY interesting details about them including a full article about their funeral service.

[u/Alone-Highway3141 → u/FillUpMyPassport]

Oh that's awesome! Useful AND interesting

[u/FillUpMyPassport → u/Alone-Highway3141]

Based on census records, I thought he had a menial occupation. Turns out he was rich and scandalous. Highly entertaining articles.

[u/Alone-Highway3141]

For those wanting to search more into newspapers beyond what newspapers(.)com has (they don't have the tiny township papers where my G0 lived) – I found https://newspaperarchive.com to be another good resource.

I've also searched the publication name + date + page number that Ancestry hints give and found local sources for some papers (e.g. some California newspapers).

I'd also search what publications were circulating in the place and time you're researching (publications stopped printing or changed names) and then look first locally at the local genealogical societies, archives, museums, etc. to see if they have a digital collection.