NewspaperArchive Assignment 

            Let’s explore NewspaperARCHIVE.  The directions below are based on having Adobe Reader v8 or higher on your computer.

NewspaperARCHIVE is the largest historical newspaper database online and contains tens of millions of newspaper pages from 1759 to present. Every newspaper in the archive is fully searchable by keyword and date, making it easy for you to quickly explore historical content. This is a subscription website, however, this assignment will work a bit different from the GenealogyBank web site. There is no login information and you  have no scheduled start or stop dates. When doing the examples below pay special attention to spelling and also which data box you are using. I have chosen words that will bring up minimal results so you won't have to sort through long lists.

This web site has a learning curve even for experienced computer users, so please be patient and I’ll help you use it by giving some examples. The method of searching scanned newspaper pages is called OCR or optical character reading. OCR is fairly accurate on clean new pages but older newspaper pages can have smears, extra marks or old type-setting styles that confuse the scan process. You will see examples of this on the search result pages when words appear scrambled or out of order. Click here to see my examples. Searches on this site are not case sensitive so APPLE is the same as searching for apple .  

There are two basic ways to search - using scanned OCR for text and by issue date and place. OCR is not perfect - try both when you are not having much success.

After the page loads, click on the word SEARCH which is located on the NewspaperArchive main toolbar. The examples will all start on this advanced "Search" page so if you get confused or lost just return to the advanced search page again. There are other ways to narrow a search so we won’t be using quotation marks. All pages are saved as PDF files which gives you more choices in sharing and printing documents. Don't struggle trying to read small print - remember to use the tools (+ and -) to zoom in and out.  

NewspaperARCHIVE uses Adobe Reader embedded within the browser and is another excellent example of today’s technology. Try zooming in and out with the plus (+) or minus (-) sign and changing the ‘Hand Tool’ to the ‘Select Tool’ (a right-click) and move the entire page around with your mouse using the ‘Hand Tool’. You can add a camera icon called a "Snapshot Tool" to the toolbar which allows you to select any part of the page and print just the area you select. Add it to the toolbar by clicking on 'Tools", then "Customize Toolbars', and scroll down (it's near the bottom) and put a check mark next to "Snapshot Tool" and it will appear on the Adobe Reader toolbar. To use it, push it in and drag your mouse across the section you want to print - then print the normal way and you will see the area you selected in the print preview window.

On most of the linked pages I have added a red box that shows you where the information is on the page. You will have to scroll up, down, left and right to view it. Again, remember to also zoom in or out using the + and - tools.

• Start in the ADVANCED SEARCH window. In the box that says ‘With the exact phrase’ type the words Michael John Sullivan and below that, in the exact date year box, choose 1890 and click the 'Search' button at the bottom of the window. At this point your screen will probably turn dark, and you will be asked to subscribe. You can still see what the results page looks like - the 'Get Started' pop up window can be moved with you mouse. Since we do not have a subscription you cannot go any further. I found that after clicking several times on "Get Started" the window usually goes away.
  
  This search should bring up one result from the Chillicothe Constitution for January 5, 1890. The link to view that page are the words Chillicothe Constitution, but instead, click here to view the page. We found an article about a school janitor who was part of the crew on the Civil War ironclad ship Monitor. It’s a great example of stories from the past and it would be a treasure to find this if it was your ancestor - his quotes are like listening to our ancestors speak. Return to the ADVANCED SEARCH window.
  
  

• In the box that says ‘With the exact phrase’ type the words Halford Ennis and click the search button. There should be two results.  The first one from a Helena, Montana newspaper dated October 3, 1922, is what I would call a false positive return because the search skipped the word ‘of’ in the phrase ‘Halford of Ennis’, apparently a Mr. Halford from the town of Ennis (it's located lower right corner of the page). Click here to view the page. The second result is from the ‘Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette on Christmas day in 1916’ - it’s a good example of local news.  Most early newspapers had these types of social columns which often lead to other research. Click here to view the page. Return to the ADVANCED SEARCH window.
  
  

• In the box that says 'With all of the words' type the words Atlanta Railroad Rapp Heckard and click the search button. Click on the first result, Atlanta Constitution (1883).  Click here to view the page  This story, called “A Gay Deceiver”, recently helped me break down one of those genealogy brick walls in my family – I cannot imagine finding it by reading all the issues and pages even if I knew that such an event had taken place. Return to the ADVANCED SEARCH window.
  
  

• In the box that says 'With all of the words' type Roland Elyse Andrews and narrow the search by choosing the year 1993 in the ‘Exact Date’  box and click search. The first result from the February 07, 1993 issue of ‘The Intelligencer’ has the obituary for Elyse Andrews. Click here to view the page  Try a RIGHT click anywhere on the newspaper page and you will see a menu where you can change your mouse from a ‘Hand Tool’ to a ‘Select Tool’ – choose the ‘Select Tool’ and then use your mouse to drag across a paragraph or two of text so it becomes highlighted. RIGHT click again on the select area and practice SAVING the image. Repeat this again and try copying and pasting the selected area into your favorite text editor (MS Word) or even directly into an email message. After you paste, don’t expect the words to be text – it's still an image. The newspaper window has many valuable tools where you can ‘Share This Page’ via email or collect pages for use later. Return to the ADVANCED SEARCH window.
  
  

• In the box that says 'With all of the words' type Irwin Family Reunion, scroll down and choose the ‘Exact Date’ boxes as follows: Year=1927, Month=September, Day=12 and Location: United States Of America - Ohio - Zanesville - Times Recorder and then click search. Click here to view the page  Articles such as this can certainly give new clues; did you notice there were at least three other family reunions listed on this page? Can you find a Patterson Family Reunion held in New Castle PA in 1891 or a Welch Family Reunion in Middlesboro, Kentucky in 1976? Return to the ADVANCED SEARCH window.
  
  

• This example will take us to a particular issue. On the NewspaperArchive toolbar click oin 'Browse Newspapers'. On the map that appears, click the state of NEW YORK; at the bottom of the ‘Browse Results’ list click on group 6 and select New York Times; in the ‘Exact Date’ boxes on the right use Year=1865 Month=April and Day=15 and click the search button. By clicking on the result 1865-04-15 and you could read the breaking news that day - as it was reported to the public. Click here to view the page By changing the ‘Day’ to 1865-04-16 you would learn more -  note especially column 3 and the medical timeline. Click here to view the page Changing the ‘Day’ to 1865-04-28 would show how the story unfolded - and all this for just 4-cents an issue. It's amazing to me that we have access so much history through printed material at our fingertips and already online. Click here to view the page  Return to the ADVANCED SEARCH window.
  
  

• There is more to learn about William H. Schwalbe, the "thrill bandit" and the roaring twenties - he was part of our Footnote assignment. Type Thrill Bandit in the exact phrase box, and narrow the year to 1929, the location to USA, Pennsylvania and Chester. The results will bring up several articles all in the Chester Times. These pertain to the capture, trial and sentencing and include his wife's name and his home address - all very interesting to the family history buff. The February 16, 1929 article is of particular interest. Click here to view the page Expanding the date and search criteria I also found the four men accused of his murder were later released because police could not prove jurisdiction and Schwalbe's mother committed suicide a few months after his death in 1934. There is probably a lot more to learn by simply searching using different words and dates. 
  
  

• You will want to explore what newspapers this site has to offer before considering a subscription. On the NewspaperArchive toolbar choose 'Browse Newspapers' just as you did in the New York example above. Select your state and explore - it's simply amazing. 
  
  

• The next search leaves NewspaperArchive and visits a library where you will see exactly how the 'parent' company (NewspaperArchive) page works. The pages have been redesigned for the Delaware County Library System but you are actually searching NewspaperArchive. You can tell this by looking at the web site address. Visit the web site at: http://delawarecolib.newspaperarchive.com and lets try some additional searching. In the 'name or keyword box' type the words Thrill Bandit and select the years as 1929 to 1929 and then search. On the results page scroll down the list and find Saturday, February 16, 1929, Chester, Pennsylvania, and click on Chester Times. The page should appear on your screen.. This is the same newspaper as in the example above, however this time you have free access to view the page. 
  
  In the small 'Find' box on the Adobe toolbar, type the word 'thrill' and hit the 'Enter' key on your keyboard which takes you directly to the word (highlighted) on the page. Try again and use the word 'club' - strike the enter key again to find all instances of the word - I found it 8 times on the page. Try one last time with the word 'man' - as you view each word, did you notice 'man' was also part of the word 'woman', 'patrolman', 'Alderman', 'Cyman', 'gunman', 'commanding', 'taximan' and others.. It found them all. That's a great example of how OCR works. Before you leave this page, return to the article about the Trill Bandit and note that the article is continued on another page. You'll find the tool for this at the top of the page - it's called 'Navigate This Paper'. Give it a try - yes, you could read the entire issue - all 24 pages. including the classified ads and sports.   
  
  Here's another one that works the same way: 
  http://siouxcounty.newspaperarchive.com
  
  The best one comes last.  Here is a collection of all the newspaper web sites (arranged by states) that have archives. However, it does not appear to include colleges, universities or other major newspaper providers such as NewspaperArchive or NewsBank. There are many more sources than this list shows. 
  http://www.ibiblio.org/slanews/internet/archives.html
  
  Some are free, others pay by article, some by subscription, some are free to current subscribers of their newspaper and many more are available remotely (at home) for free if you have a library card. I encourage you to always check with the library you want to use and ask what resources they have for newspaper archives, especially online.
  
  Linda, who is currently a student in our classroom provided these last links. Thank you very much! 
  
  

• If you have been researching your family for awhile and need to find more information about a person, place or event, newspaper research at the library or online is highly recommended. You see it used all the time on the PBS program "History Detectives". Census records and newspapers are the two most frequently used methods used by historians.  

If you want to subscribe and have your own membership use http://newspaperarchive.com/RegistrationChoosePlan.aspx  

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