Old-Newspaper Finds

Old newspapers hold what certificates leave out: who came to the funeral, who visited from out of town, who sold the farm, and who was in the hospital. This column shows readers how to find those notices and, with permission, prints the best finds readers send in.

Where to start, free

• Chronicling America at the Library of Congress.
• Google News Archive.
• The Portal to Texas History, for Texas papers.
• Your state library or state archives: many run their own free newspaper projects.

Five search habits that find more

1. Search spellings, not just names. Scanned pages are read by software, and old type is often misread. Try initials, nicknames and likely misspellings.
2. Search the husband's name for a married woman. Older papers often printed "Mrs. John Smith" rather than her own first name.
3. Search the street address or the farm. Addresses survive bad scans better than surnames do.
4. Read the whole page. Small-town "personals" columns list visitors, illnesses and trips, often without a headline.
5. Check the week after. Funeral reports, cards of thanks and estate notices often follow an obituary by days or weeks.

What each kind of notice can tell you

• Obituaries: survivors and where they lived, the church, the cemetery, the employer.
• Society columns: who visited whom, who travelled, who was ill.
• Legal notices: estate settlements, land sales and name changes, often naming heirs.
• Cards of thanks: printed after a funeral, they can name the family members who signed them.

Readers' finds

Reader finds will be printed here only with the sender's permission and with the source cited. None are shown yet, and none will ever be invented. See Reader Submissions.