Access to historic newspapers online is growing exponentially as more papers have been digitized.
Some sites are free; some not. The latest is www.elephind.com, where the idea is that you can search all the world’s digitized newspapers via this one site. Currently it has more than 1,900 titles.
A major free site from the Library of Congress is http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. Another site, which I use for newspapers all over the nation as well as obituaries since 1977 from many Georgia papers, is www.genealogybank.com. It is fee-based.
Other fee-based sites are www.newspaperarchive.com and www.newspapers.com. Ancestry.com also has a lot of newspapers and adds more each year, so always check for the latest additions.
For Georgia newspapers, check the University of Georgia’s Digital Library of Georgia, which has newspaper archives for Athens, Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Milledgeville and South Georgia, as well as other specialized titles. Plans call for it to add Savannah in the new year.
Other states have newspapers posted on their state historical society sites or their state archives sites, so searching for any state’s name and “newspapers” will turn up these. Just remember that they are not all searched the same way; some are much easier to use than others, but they are each a goldmine of information.
For British newspapers, there are several sites, but a major one is at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.
Abbreviations, acronyms
Do you know for sure what various abbreviations or acronyms used in genealogy actually stand for? It took me a while to realize “do.” stood for “ditto.”
The December issue of Family Tree Magazine includes a list of these. Some are professional organizations; some are strictly genealogy terms like Gedcom or BCG. Others — like “OR” for Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, a multi-volume series; or “OS” for old style calendar — are worth noting.
Abbreviations become old hat the further you get into your research, but when you start off you might be stumped by some of them, so be sure you know what they stand for by checking a dictionary or online.
DNA may be on file
If you don’t know whether anyone in your family has had their DNA tested, check Family Tree DNA’s site at www.ftdna.com.
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