What’s more fun than finding our ancestor’s names in a newspaper article? Whether it’s a wedding announcement, a birth announcement or an obituary, these records can be tremendous genealogical gold mines.
Newspapers are all about what’s going on in a specific moment in time. And, the good thing is, that newspapers have been being printed since before we were even a country separate from England.
There has always been difficulty in obtaining Detroit newspapers online. The Detroit Free Press isn’t digitized or available on Genealogy Bank or Newspapers.com.
Currently on Genealogy Bank you have access to these newspapers for Detroit.
Detroit Gazette
Detroit Independent
Detroit Informer
Detroiter Abend-Post
Herold
Michigan Herald
Plaindealer
Weekly Detroit Free Press 1886-1887
Right now on Newspapers.com there are 36 newspapers for Michigan. None of them for Detroit.
HERE’S THE GOOD NEWS!!
According to a newly released blog post by Dick Eastman on Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter the Gannett company is about to digitize more U.S. newspapers, INCLUDING THE DETROIT FREE PRESS.
“Through this collaboration, more than four million searchable pages of The Cincinnati Enquirer were made available online. Newspapers.com and Gannett will begin the rollout phase of all public archives of more than 80 daily newspapers, including Detroit Free Press, The Arizona Republic, The Indianapolis Star, The Tennessean and many others to follow. Each archive will ultimately include every available page from the first date of publication up to issues from 30 days ago.”
So, standby all my fellow Detroiters, there is hope on the horizon. Since I live in California and my family goes back 3 generations in Detroit, this is fantastic news. I was born in Detroit, as were all my siblings. Could there have been birth announcements? I’m so excited to find out what treasures I can find.
One more thing. The Online Historical Newspaper Collection of the Day on The Ancestor Hunt blog is Michigan Digital Newspaper Portal.
Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl
Copyright © 2015 Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION
That's wonderful news! I can't wait! :)
ReplyDeleteMe too Dana :)
DeleteThanks for the shout out for The Ancestor Hunt.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely welcome Kenneth. Your FB page is wonderful and very helpful.
DeleteThe Detroit Free Press 1831-1922 has been digitized for a few years now. It is available through Historical Newspapers at ProQuest to libraries and institutions. The Mt Clemens Public Library has a subscription and I think either the Archives of Michigan or Library of Michigan.
ReplyDeleteThe Detroit News is also digitized and available through the same service.
The subscriptions are very expensive and so not many libraries have them.
If these papers end up at newspapers.com too that would be great!
LE
Let's Talk...Genealogy
Macomb County Genealogy Group
LE - Thanks. I do know about various Detroit papers being available via ProQuest at libraries, but that doesn't help most folks. I also know about the U of M students having access to Detroit Free Press. As far as my experience goes, it's the Detroit Free Press that contains much of the information, at least for me and others I connect with. However, it becomes available will be good for everyone and a welcome addition to our research. My husband has a lot of family from other areas and I find articles on his family all the time. Of course :)
DeleteThanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Oops! The Detroit News is available via another service, not ProQuest. Sorry about that.
ReplyDeleteLE
Let's Talk...Genealogy
Macomb County Genealogy Group
http://mcgg-letstalkgenealogy.blogspot.com/
Just googled Michigan and newspapers which lead me to your post about Detroit newspapers Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Magda. It's always my hope that the information I post will be helpful to other researchers. Thanks for letting me know :)
Delete