chronicling america: using historic newspapers for genealogy research

Chronicling America: Using Historic Newspapers

for Genealogy Research

Erenst Anip, Project LibrarianKaryn Norwood, Digital Support Specialist

Quick Poll:

1. Have you heard of or used Chronicling America before?

2. Have you used it for genealogy research?

What is Chronicling America?

Online tool to search historic newspapers from across the country.

9 million pages from 1836-1922 available to search by text.

You can search, save, download, print, and clip articles for free.

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

Vermont Digital

Newspaper Project

Part of the National Digital Newspaper Program

Digitizing historic Vermont newspapers between 1836-1922

Vermont Content Online: • 59 Vermont titles • 260,000 pages• Every county

represented (except Grand Isle)

• ….and more to come!!!

IN-STATE PARTNERS

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

• Advise on title selection

• Provide outreach connections

• Meet once a year

EQUIPMENT

WORKFLOW

Title selection Microfilm:

positives & negatives Metadata

creationScan

image, OCR, &

XML files QRDelivery to

LC Searchable pages online

CATALOG UPDATE

TITLE ESSAY @ 500 WORDS

DUPLICATE MICROFIL

MREELS

100,000 PAGES

DIGITIZED

DELIVERABLES

Why is this a useful tool for

genealogy?

Easy to use!

Searches the newspaper text using OCR technology

Newspapers included: local news, marriages and deaths, participant lists, advertisements, social and political functions, local individual updates, and legal notices

Good place to start: library.uvm.edu/vtnp

or search:VTDNP or

Vermont Digital Newspaper Project

Ways to Access Chronicling

America

Vermont-specific Content:

Vermont Digital Newspaper Project Website:

library.uvm.edu/vtnp

Chronicling America:

Chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

or

ChroniclingAmerica.comSearch titles by county

and town!

We have an interactive Google

Map!

VTDNP’s Resources tab!

library.uvm.edu/vtnp/

General Tutorials For Educators For Genealogists Presentations

Other Online

Tools byVTDNP

flickr.com/vtdp

pinterest.com/vtdnp

library.uvm.edu/vtnp

facebook.com/vtdnp

slideshare.net

Interactive map with newspaper mastheads!

Let’s take a look at the resource:

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

or search: Chronicling America

The Basics of Chronicling America:

Keyword searches Simple search Advanced

search

All Digitized Newspapers

100 years ago Recommended

Topics

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

How to search?

We’ll learn two ways:

Simple Search Advanced Search

Important: The search technology searches the newspaper text,

so think about historical language!

Search Pages Tab

Pick a state or search all states

Pick a year range or specific year.

Remember, years are between 1836-1922.

Enter a search word(s) here.

Let’s try a simple search!

The Search Pages tool will scan the

newspaper text to find results.

1. Scroll down to find Vermont

2. Keep the year range

as it is

3. Type in a word of your choice

4. Click on Go

c

Tons of results!

“Library” highlighted

in red on the newspaper

page.

The search tool searches the text to find the word/phrase you entered. In this case, “library.”

Page Results

Click on these two buttons to zoom in and out. Or, scroll

with your mouse or fingers.

Click on this to go to full screen.

This shows which page of the

newspaper is shown. Shown here is page 3. Use the arrows to go from page to page.

Use these arrows to browse surrounding newspaper issues.

Let’s try the clipping tool!

1.Zoom in to something you are interested in clipping.

2.Click on the scissor tool. 3.You can then print or save the

image.

The red box shows what will

be clipped.

Note: clipped image are not of

the highest quality

Let’s see how the Advanced Search works!

Hold down Ctrl to select multiple states or

newspapers!

Case Study: Viro Small, A.K.A. “Black Sam”

Burlington Weekly Free Press, January 3, 1879, page 4.

www.blackamericaweb.com

Only 1 result, but a new discovery!

What is known about him? • Born in 1854 in Buford, South

Carolina into slavery. • One of the first black wrestlers

in the country.• Lived in and fought out of

Rutland & St. Albans, Vermont for a time.

• A champion collar-and-elbow wrestler. Won Vermont’s collar-and-elbow championship twice. Won at least 63 matches in ten years.

• Last known match was in 1885.

Other Search Parameters:

• All States and a Basic Search for “Viro Small”

• Advanced Search for Phrases: “Viro Small” and “Black Sam” and Years 1870-1890

• Advanced Search: Trying alternate names of “Samuel Hackett” and “Samuel Hadley” with wrestling.

• Advanced Search: Including any words: wrestling, black, collar, wrestling, match.

The Evening World, NYC, December

15, 1888, page 2. The Sun, NYC, September 4, 1882, page 1.

The Sun, NYC, April 24, 1883, page 1

Another new

discovery!

Recovered and fighting again in less than a year.

New York Tribune, February 18, 1883, page 12.

Tips & TricksTry a basic search first, using a name and limiting it by state.

If you get no results, try:abbreviating the first name or just using the last name

then, try out the advanced search

If you get thousands of results, try:limiting yearsthen, try out the advanced search

Technology then and now: not perfect

Typos or errors

Microfilm quality

OCR rarely 100%

accurate

Diversify your search terms!

Name variations

Affiliated organizations, businesses,

or schools

Historical vocabularyFor events, try including the term, such as: marriage, nuptial, obituary, death

Narrow (or Expand) Search Parameters

Limit location by state(s)

Narrow search by years or specific

dates

Narrow search by newspapers(s)

Limit using the search text options

Let’s test out a genealogy example!

Example: Thurbers of Corinth, Vermont

A simple search of:Francis Thurber & Vermont

Found: Obituaries of Francisand his wife, Amelia

A simple search for Hiram Thurber yielded this from 1895:

Keeping Track of Your Finds

Save page as PDF with date and title of paper. Print screen and save articles in a Word

document. Save page in the Bookmark Bar. Use “Pin it” bar to pin pages on Pinterest. Copy and paste the bottom citation for each

page into a Word document.

Phase III Titles:Sneak

Preview!

• Orleans County Monitor (1913-1922)• Rutland Herald (1855-1873)• Brattleboro Reformer family (1879-

1922)• Londonderry Sifter (1884-1921)• Manchester Journal (1861-1922)• Herald and News (1888-1910) (West

Randolph, Orange County)• Barre Daily Times (1903-1922)• Bellows Falls Times (1855-1903)

=110,000 + pages of Vt. newspapers

Questions?

This PowerPoint

will be posted on our website and available for download.

Contact us:library.uvm.edu/vtnp

Erenst Anip, Project Librarian: eanip@uvm.edu

Karyn Norwood, Digital Support:

knorwood@uvm.edu

Phone: 802-656-0819