There are more historical newspaper resources than you think--and they're easier to access than you know. When researched properly, no other type of record can beat historical newspapers in "taking the pulse" of their times and places, recording not just the names, but also information important to the community. This comprehensive how-to guide will show you how to harvest the "social media" of centuries past to learn about your ancestors and the times and places they lived in. With step-by-step examples, case studies, templates, worksheets, and screenshots, this book shows you what you can find in online (and offline) historical newspapers, from city dailies to weekly community papers to foreign-language gazetteers. The Family Tree Historical Newspapers Guide features:    • Tips and techniques for finding crucial genealogy records in newspapers, such as birth announcements, obituaries, and even news reports    • Step-by-step guides for using popular online newspaper databases such as GenealogyBank and Newspapers.com    • Case studies that will put information found in newspapers to use There are more historical newspaper resources than you think--and they're easier to access than you know. When researched properly, no other type of record can beat historical newspapers in "taking the pulse" of their times and places, recording not just the names, but also information important to the community. This comprehensive how-to guide will show you how to harvest the "social media" of centuries past to learn about your ancestors and the times and places they lived in. With step-by-step examples, case studies, templates, worksheets, and screenshots, this book shows you what you can find in online (and offline) historical newspapers, from city dailies to weekly community papers to foreign-language gazetteers. The Family Tree Historical Newspapers Guide features: Tips and techniques for finding crucial genealogy records in newspapers, such as birth announcements, obituaries, and even news reports - Step-by-step guides for using popular online newspaper databases such as GenealogyBank and Newspapers.com - Case studies that will put information found in newspapers to use The Family Tree Historical Newspapers Guide How To Find Your Ancestors In Archived Newspapers By James M. Beidler F+W Media, Inc. Copyright © 2018 James M. Beidler All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4403-5062-7 Contents INTRODUCTION, PART ONE - LEARNING THE BASICS, CHAPTER 1 THE HISTORICAL ROLE OF NEWSPAPERS, CHAPTER 2 RECORDS IN NEWSPAPERS, CHAPTER 3 VITAL RECORDS AND LIFE EVENTS IN NEWSPAPERS, CHAPTER 4 OBITUARIES AND OTHER DEATH NOTICES, CHAPTER 5 UNDERSTANDING NEWSPAPER MEDIA, PART TWO - ACCESSING DIGITIZED NEWSPAPERS, CHAPTER 6 FREE NEWSPAPER WEBSITES, CHAPTER 7 NEWSPAPERS.COM, CHAPTER 8 GENEALOGYBANK, CHAPTER 9 OTHER SUBSCRIPTION WEBSITES, CHAPTER 10 SEEKING OUT OTHER NEWSPAPERS, PART THREE - DIVING DEEPER INTO NEWSPAPERS, CHAPTER 11 ETHNIC-FOCUSED NEWSPAPERS, CHAPTER 12 INTERNATIONAL NEWSPAPERS, CHAPTER 13 PRESERVING, COLLECTING, AND CITING NEWSPAPERS, CHAPTER 14 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER, APPENDIX A NEWSPAPER RESEARCH FLOWCHART, APPENDIX B NEWSPAPER RESOURCES, APPENDIX C CREATING A NEWSPAPER CHRONOLOGY, CHAPTER 1 The Historical Role of Newspapers With all the genealogical resources available to you, why should you take the time to research newspapers? As we discussed in the introduction, newspapers can provide information that no other record type can, presenting you with unique opportunities to breathe life into your family's story. And since newspapers were the social media of their time, they document the everyday lives of your ancestors and their communities. This chapter will discuss the historical role of newspapers, giving you some foundations of how more than three centuries of newspaper publishing have played out in America. We'll also discuss how time and place affect your genealogy research, plus how you can make your way through the rest of this book. RESEARCHING TIME AND PLACE Anyone working on family history needs to be familiar with genealogy's first principles, such as researching specific questions (to keep research from being scattershot), working backward in time (instead of assuming a distant person with the same surname is automatically an ancestor, only to waste time and effort), and practicing "whole family" genealogy (studying records relating to siblings of direct-line ancestors for the information it can add). But probably the paramount principle when starting a newspaper search is grounding yourself in the proper "time and place" of the people or events you are searching. Just as the history of newspapers in this chapter will help inoculate you from "presentism," using time and place — the date or era in which you are searching and the geographic (or, in some cases, ethnographic) area being researched — will keep you right on target in your genealogical and hist