In this virtual event Crista Cowen, Corporate Genealogist at Ancestry, introduces the immense power of historic newspapers to enhance family history research. The virtual event’s core objective was to demonstrate how newspapers can break through genealogical "brick walls," answer questions researchers didn't know they had, and uncover both heartwarming and surprising or "salacious" stories about ancestors. Viewers learned that beyond typical records, newspapers provide rich context about the rhythm of life in a community, detailing everything from society news, military assignments, and local gossip to dinner party menus and community functions, essentially acting as the Facebook of their day. This context is vital for transforming basic facts into compelling family stories.
Crista began by clarifying how to access the extensive Newspapers.com collection, explaining that it is maintained separately from Ancestry to serve diverse history audiences, and is accessed through the premium tier Ancestry subscription (All Access) or a standalone Newspapers subscription. The bulk of the session focused on strategic searching, highlighting how Ancestry has leveraged AI technology to create searchable indexes from Newspapers.com content, including databases for obituaries, marriage-related records, and the vast "Stories and Events" index. Key search techniques covered included using wildcards ('?') to account for spelling variations, searching for women under their husband's name (e.g., Mrs. Park Cowan), and using location or community names as keywords to catch mentions in articles published elsewhere. For searching directly on Newspapers.com, attendees learned to use the "Browse" feature to discover available titles and to use quotation marks to search for exact phrases. Finally, Cowen provided tips on processing hints, clipping relevant articles, and saving newspaper citations to the Ancestry family tree, noting that private research notes can be kept using the Ancestry notes feature.
Chapters:
- Accessing Newspapers.com and Subscription Tiers
- The Power of Newspapers: Breaking Brick Walls and Uncovering Salacious Stories
- Ancestry's AI Indexing: Obituaries, Marriage Records, and Stories & Events
- Advanced Searcy Strategies and Iterative Searching Techniques
- Browisng Collections, Filtering Results, and Saving Sources to Your Tree
Don't wait—use your new search skills today to uncover the surprising stories waiting in the newspaper archives!