Using Digital Newspapers for Genealogical Research Program Recap

Thank you to author and historian Brian Armstrong for his helpful discussion on where to find digital copies of newspapers throughout New Jersey as well as the plethora of genealogical information that can be gleaned from historical newspapers. While many digital versions of newspapers are still behind paid subscription services, more and more libraries and archives are working to digitize their holdings and make them freely accessible. Let’s take a look and see what we can discover!

Digital Newspaper Basics

Newspapers are like a mirror, held up to reflect who we (and our communities) are. Newspapers played a critical role in America’s history and were the primary method of communicating information for centuries; as a result, most towns and cities had at least one paper. Since 1935, many newspapers were microfilmed, with varying degrees of quality. Digital copies of these newspapers are from the microfilm rather than the original so obstructions can cause difficulties in reading the pages. However, the use of Optical Character Recognition has made it easier to index and search these papers with a few simple keystrokes.

Information in Newspapers

Newspapers, historic and current, can contain of wealth of information that is great for genealogical research:

Obituaries – These can contain a wide variety of vital information, including dates of birth, marriage, and death, names of parents, children, and other relatives, and places of residence.
Gossip and Events – Depending on the time period, newspapers might have published information on weddings, funerals, parties, graduations, illnesses, or even trips by car.
Business Stories and Ads – These can include founders stories, company history, locations, or products and services.
Legal Records – Notices relating to lawsuits, wills, and divorce can provide biographical information, personal property, and draw connections to other individuals.
Real Estate – Transactions of sales, transfers, renovations, and even reports of fire can help tie relatives to specific locations.

Digital Newspaper Sources

The resources below are a selected list of popular subscription services as well as listings of digital newspapers:

Newspaper Archive (Paid) – https://newspaperarchive.com/ (Trenton, Hopewell, New Brunswick)
Newspapers.com (Paid) – https://www.newspapers.com/ (Trenton, Hopewell, New Brunswick, Catham, Bernardsville)
GenealogyBank Newspaper Archive (Paid) – https://www.genealogybank.com/explore/newspapers/all (1700s, 1800s papers, Trenton, Bridgeton, Jersey City)
New Jersey Digital Highway – https://njdigitalhighway.org/
NJ Digitized Newspapers – https://sites.google.com/site/onlinenewspapersite/Home/usa/nj
Microfilmed Newspapers – https://newarkpubliclibrary.libraryhost.com/repositories/3/archival_objects/88769
All Digitized Newspapers (National Endowment for the Humanities) – http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/

The New Jersey State Library has developed a Research Guide that provides valuable information about current and historic New Jersey Newspapers – https://libguides.njstatelib.org/news. Additionally, we have created the New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project which lists digital newspapers by county throughout the state and where to access them – https://libguides.njstatelib.org/digitized-newspapers.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Brian Armstrong at brianarm59@gmail.com or Regina Fitzpatrick, Genealogy Librarian, at rfitzpatrick@njstatelib.org. You can view a recording of the webinar at https://youtu.be/wZFqtQRKMpI.