Wichita, Kansas, Newspaper Archives (1872 - 1981)

Enter your ancestor's name below and we'll search Wichita historical newspapers to help you learn more.

Narrow by Date

Date Range or Date

to

for

Narrow by Keywords

Keywords

 
Narrow by Location

State

City

Newspaper

advanced search

Recent Newspaper Clippings

Loading Clip Preview
Charles Mathes Saved General Wm. Henry Harrison
Captain Charles Mathes carried a powder horn in the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Powder from this horn saved the life of General Wm. Henry Harrison, the Governor of the State of Indiana. The powder horn was given to the state library at Indianapolis.
Daily eagle
Wichita, Kansas
...

Barbara_Ek
Clipped 1 month ago

Loading Clip Preview
Negro Star
Wichita, Kansas
...

bj0915
Clipped 3 months ago

Loading Clip Preview
E Thaddeus Summitt
Wichita Searchlight
Wichita, Kansas
...

iconpet
Clipped 5 months ago

Loading Clip Preview
Hager Wise
Sue’s Mr. Bailey-1899
Daily eagle
Wichita, Kansas
...

cjsh
Clipped 5 months ago

Wichita, Kansas Newspaper Archive

The greatest challenge of exploring your family history is uncovering accurate records in Kansas. Before the invention of the Internet, official records were spotty. Genealogy enthusiasts need to get creative when it comes to finding those elusive ancestors and discovering their stories.

Wichita historical newspapers are an incredibly useful tool for discovering who you are and where you came from. When you review our newspaper database, you gain access to top-quality public records that cover obituaries, events of the day, and other news that can shed light on your family history.

Our Wichita, Kansas newspaper archive enables you to explore different newspapers going back decades. Look up every issue of Wichita historic newspapers to find news stories, obituaries, marriage records, and birth records to fill in the gaps of your knowledge regarding your family surname history.

Some of the reasons to use our Wichita newspaper database include:

  • Build the branches of your family tree.
  • Discover Members of your extended family.
  • Find stories about the lives of unknown ancestors.

At GenealogyBank, we have access more than 13,000 local and national newspapers traversing 330 years of U.S. history.

Approximately 95% of our Wichita, Kansas historic online newspapers cannot be found anywhere else, and you can access them in a matter of seconds.

How to Search a Wichita, Kansas Newspaper Database

Whether you’re new to genealogy or you’re the resident family historian, finding records in the Wichita newspaper archives couldn’t be simpler.

All you have to do is choose your desired newspaper collection and enter the last name of your relative. Click “Search,” and you’ll see all records relating to your family name in the Wichita, KS newspapers or in any other publication.

For additional tips, you can also download our “Tips for Searching Newspapers” guide completely free of charge. The guide will enable you to better understand our search function navigation and give you the best chance of finding published records about your family.

Already got more information on a certain relative? Try an advanced Wichita newspaper database search.

  • Step One - Include the first and last names of a specific relative to narrow down your results.
  • Step Two - Add keywords to further narrow your results, such as a school they went to or the name of the town in and around Wichita.
  • Step Three - Maybe you keep getting irrelevant results from nearby locations? Exclude certain keywords to eliminate these results from your research.
  • Step Four - Include a year range if you already have a rough idea of when your relative lived.
  • Step Five - Use filters to get the oldest, newest, or best match results first.

Tips for a Successful Wichita Newspaper Search

Finding a specific person across 330 years of U.S. history can be tough, especially if they had a commonly used name. This is where the challenge of sifting through Wichita, Kansas historical newspapers comes in.

Many records contain minimal information, or they were recorded via an oral interaction. This could lead to spelling mistakes or outright incorrect statements. Unfortunately, there was extraordinarily little auditing of obituaries, death notices, and news stories in Wichita historic newspapers.

Here are some useful tips for finding the right ancestors:

  • Try searching by a person’s initials. Older Wichita newspapers often didn’t include full names. This is more common as you work your way back through history.
  • To find a female relative, search for their husband’s name. The wife’s name wasn’t included in full, especially their pre-marriage family name.
  • Use common misspellings. This is extra helpful if you have a hard-to-spell family name or a name of non-English origin.

These techniques can help track down ancestors you’re having trouble finding. It’s not uncommon for family researchers to hit a brick wall while tracing their family tree. But there’s always more information to uncover! Try searching U.S. Census Records to gather more family details before exploring historical newspapers.

Remember, Wichita historic online newspaper records, including Wichita Eagle newspaper archives provide details of your family that cannot be found in government records. It was once very common for everyday lives of your ancestors to be captured in the newspaper. You’ll be amazed at the family facts and stories you’ll uncover.

How to Find Ancestors in Wichita Historical Newspapers

There are countless reasons why records for your ancestors may appear in a newspaper. For most people, these could be birth announcements, marriage announcements, or obituaries. All of these records are potentially available via the Wichita newspaper archive.

The easiest way to begin working on your family history is to work backward. With potentially thousands of Americans sharing your last name across the state, it’s easy to mistakenly add someone unrelated to your family tree.

Steadily moving through extended family members and using other relatives to fill in the gaps of some of the more elusive members of your bloodline can help you gradually build up your family tree.

Remember, before the advent of the Internet, newspapers were the leading way to disseminate information throughout the community. Some of the events that took place during your ancestor’s life could have received coverage in the media, shedding additional light on your family’s history.

Here are some additional tips for narrowing down different newspaper records:

  • Include advanced search techniques, such as Boolean operators and proximity searches.
  • Double-check newspaper entries with any official government records.
  • Use other ancestors to confirm the validity of another. Many death notices will mention other ancestors alongside the deceased.

Wichita historic newspapers are a treasure trove of historical knowledge. And you can access centuries’ worth of issues from the comfort of your own home.