The Value of New England Puritan Historical Data

Before the Internet came along, the primary vehicle for disseminating the comings and goings of any community was the newspaper. With the New England Puritan archive, you can climb through a window into the past.

Whether you’re looking for marriage announcements, death notices, obituaries, or feature stories about your ancestors, these archives can form a considerable part of any family history project.

So why else are these archives so valuable?

They add color to the stories of your family’s past. Official government records tend to provide the basic facts and nothing more. Newspapers tell the story of figures in the community and give you a personal account of how your ancestors lived and what they did.

Furthermore, New England Puritan historic newspapers may reveal through their announcements some of the relatives you didn’t know about.

Countless GenealogyBank users have discovered family members they’d never heard of through searching the New England Puritan database.

The historical data you uncover could form the foundation for additional research and further discovery.

How to Search the New England Puritan Database

At GenealogyBank, we make the process of sifting through New England Puritan historic online newspapers simple. It doesn’t matter whether you’re looking into your family history for the first time or whether you’re an experienced researcher.

Select your desired newspaper collection and enter the last name of the relative for which you are researching. Press the “Search” button, and you’ll receive a list of relevant records bearing your relative’s name.

Of course, this is the most basic search of New England Puritan historic newspapers you can make. You also need to know how to narrow down your results to ensure you have the right person.

Tens of thousands of Americans share the same name, so you need to be extremely careful not to make any mistakes.

Here’s a step-by-step guide for performing an advanced search of Boston historic newspapers.

We also recommend downloading our free “Tips for Searching Newspapers” guide for even more useful strategies.

• Step One - Include the first, last, and any middle names of a specific relative.
• Step Two - Add in some keywords, such as the name of the town they lived in or the school they attended.
• Step Three - If you need to further narrow down your results, consider excluding certain keywords, such as those of nearby towns and schools.
• Step Four - Add in a year range to further hone in on a specific ancestor. This doesn’t have to be exact.
• Step Five - Take advantage of filters to order results by best match, oldest, and newest. This can help you cut through any close match entries that don’t match the men and women within your family tree.