New Ancestry U.S. Newspapers.com™ Stories and Events Index

Billions of new newspaper index records (over 19.1 billion, to be exact) have been added to Ancestry.com. The roll-out was completed this week, for collection called the “U.S. Newspapers.com™ Stories and Events Index, 1800’s-current” — which provides a deeper look into stories about our ancestors — moving beyond just the marriage and obituary index sets.

The collection has expanded widely in recent months (finally completing its collection of all U.S. states on November 6th), with billions of new entries indexing the names found in an array of newspaper “Stories and Events” from the Newspapers.com™ collection, owned by Ancestry.

What’s good so far?

I have run some tests on different names and search parameters.

I was impressed. Without a question, had this index been available at the time, it would have saved me hours of working with advanced search operators, and “hacking” the search terms on Newspapers.com.

The new index has listings that previously took hours of work using custom search parameters and required tons of extra effort. The old index sets for newspaper results were previously focused on marriages and death notices/obituaries.

Don’t wait for — or rely exclusively — on your leaf hints! Click the states you want to research below, and start digging in yourself!

The new collection includes indexing of names in news stories within several categories, including:

Arts and Culture
Religion
Accident or Emergency Incident
Disaster
Crime
Law and Justice
Economy and Business
Advertisement
Labor
Politics
Conflict or War
Military
Education
Sport
Club and Association
Lifestyle
Human Interest
Environment
Other

**Never-before-indexed articles and features allow us to get a fuller picture of our ancestors – including their social lives, tragedies, education, associations, politics, and more.**

Examples of Stories and Events Found by the Index

Some examples of newspaper pieces the index has found so far, for my own family, include:

Article on voter suppression (early 1900s) by the machine politics in Philadelphia. It mentioned my great-uncle as one of those targeted.
Articles on a cousin who was District Attorney of Alameda County, California – covering some of the legal cases he prosecuted
Society bits and pieces about the above cousin, his honeymoon, mother’s health, and travels
Society bits mentioning family members who traveled to visit friends and family
Hotel arrivals tracking the movements of several family members
Pieces covering the involvement of several family members in different civic, philanthropic, social, and religious organizations
War news about wounds and battles, which name family members as among those training, deployed, or wounded
Engagement and Wedding news, with details — some including photos (usually the bride, at a minimum)
News on various criminal and civil legal proceedings
Coverage of various accidents and injuries — ranging from minor to fatal
Stories about retirements from the police, civil service, military, or major companies

*Example of one of the stories found by the index, mentioning my cousin W.H.L. Hynes (*Oakland Tribune, 1915)

Access

19.1 billion record entries are now available for all 50 U.S. states (plus, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico), rolled out over the past year — and finally completed on November 6th.

Any Ancestry account subscription can search the index, but you’ll need Newspapers.com™ access to view the newspaper page referenced in the index.

If you do not have a Newspapers.com™ account, and are not yet sure if it will help your research, you might consider an Newspapers.com™ FREE Trial.

**Stories and Events are also available as Hints**

How to Get Started Searching the Stories and Events Index

Option 1: Go to your Ancestry trees. Open the tree that contains your research subject.
Click on the Hints leaf for the individual you want to search for in the index.
You’ll find any Stories and Events matches that Ancestry’s algorithms consider close enough to be listed as a Hint.
But don’t stop there! If you are leaning heavily on the Hints feature – but aren’t using the Search function actively – you are probably missing a lot of leads.
Option 2: Use the list of states and territories below to select the state/territory for your research subject.
Enter your search terms.
Browse the results.
Select “View Record” next to each name to view the newspaper clipping.

Search Tips

Use the left-side options to restrict your search by century (1800s or 1900s), or further – by decade
Many results have only a last name
Some results have only an initial or two, rather than a full name
When looking for women, keep in mind many results will not include any first name – instead using Miss/Ms/Mrs
Other results for women use “Mrs” followed by her husband’s first and last name (e.g., “Mrs. Michael Murphy”)
Military rank (like “PVT”) or a title (“Alderman,” “Officer,” etc.) may appear instead of a first name
The system contains various Optical Character Recognition (OCR) errors – such as random spaces, letters or characters in the middle of a name
OCR often chokes on names with a prefix like “Mc,” Mac,” “O'” or “D'” – and might overlook apostrophes altogether, treat them as a middle initial, or use a space
Keyword, Topic, Newspaper Title, and Residence Date are available to refine searches

**Using the left-side options to restrict search by century or decade**

The Collection – Direct Links

I have prepared a complete list of the states and territories available so far – with direct links to each – below (and I will update the list as new index states are added). You’ll have to be logged into your Ancestry account to use the search:

POST UPDATES:
• 11/01/2023: Links to the 6 new states added to Ancestry on 10/30/2023 (Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota); associated minor text edits
• 11/07/2023: Links to the final remaining 6 states added to Ancestry on 11/06/2023 (Arkansas, Kansas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming); associated minor text edits

If you have any questions, or would like some pointers, feel free to get in touch with me.
Find my Contact Form here.
You can donate a book or a tip to support my work here.

🥷

New Ancestry U.S. Newspapers.com™ Stories and Events Index

What’s good so far?

Examples of Stories and Events Found by the Index

Access

How to Get Started Searching the Stories and Events Index

Search Tips

The Collection – Direct Links

By James Colgan

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