{"id":58939,"date":"2020-06-03T11:26:59","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T15:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=58939"},"modified":"2020-06-03T11:26:59","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T15:26:59","slug":"genealogy-tip-searching-newspaper-archives-by-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/genealogy-tip-searching-newspaper-archives-by-date.html","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy Tip: Searching Newspaper Archives by Date"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak shows how a \u201cSearch by Date\u201d feature can help you better research historical newspaper archives. Mary is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been following my \u201cIconic Newspapers\u201d blog articles (see links below), you\u2019ll note that I have looked up the first editions of early American newspapers. But how do you know when a newspaper was initially published?<\/p>\n

My first inclination to determine these dates was to search Chronicling America<\/a> (a Library of Congress website) \u2013 but then I found that GenealogyBank<\/a> was one step ahead of me. All I had to do was to search GenealogyBank by date. Let me explain the steps.<\/p>\n

Browsing Options<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your first step is to go to the top menu and select Browse > Newspapers by Date. (Of course, you can also browse newspapers by State or Title, as you would expect, as well as by Recently Added Content.)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

From there, you\u2019ll be presented with a series of cascading menus showing each state.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you wanted to research the first edition of the Boston Gazette<\/em>. I chose the state (Massachusetts), which then presented a list of the cities in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Next, I chose the city (Boston). To no surprise, there are over 200 Boston newspapers in the archives.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

I scrolled down and selected the Boston Gazette<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Next you see a list of all the years the selected newspaper was published (in the case of the Boston Gazette<\/em>, 80 years). Selecting on any given year shows you the months that paper was published that year. When I chose the Boston Gazette\u2019s<\/em> first year (1719), it showed that it was only published in December that year. Selecting December showed it was only published once that month, December 21 \u2013 and that was the first edition of the newspaper. The list also showed there were two pages in that first edition \u2013 selecting either page link calls up that actual page of the newspaper.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

The rest of the Page List has links identified as \u201cPage Targets.\u201d These are notes on the filming of the newspaper for digitization. When in a hurry, most people forget to explore these notes \u2013 but if you are a diligent researcher, you might find an important tip such as this one about the interpretation of dates prior to the Gregorian Calendar adoption.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Challenge Yourself with These Exercises<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Now that I\u2019ve shown you how to find the first edition of the Boston Gazette<\/em>, repeat the process to determine when the last edition was published.<\/p>\n

2) Explore your home town or that of an ancestor. Do you know all of the available newspapers from that town?<\/p>\n

3) Which newspapers were published in nearby towns during your ancestor\u2019s lifetime. They might contain information useful to your family history and genealogies.<\/p>\n

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