You’re ready to do some newspaper research. Maybe you’re hoping to find mentions of an ancestor or you just need to add some historical context to their story. How do you find a historical digitized newspaper for a country you aren’t as familiar with? A finding aid might be the answer. 

What is a finding aid? In this case, it’s a resource to help you find websites and repositories with the newspapers you need. It’s an important first step in research especially when you are unfamiliar with the research in a particular place. Instead of going straight to a newspaper website, consider searching a finding aid first to learn more about what is available.

Here are a few resources to help you find historical newspapers worldwide. Remember the following websites don’t have the actual newspapers, they merely provide links to direct you to the website that does.

First things first. Cyndi’s List is most likely a familiar website no matter what your genealogical interest. Since 1996, Cyndi has indexed links to websites and today her website boasts over 300,000 genealogical related links. To find newspaper links on Cyndi's List, search for the country and then the category “newspapers.” Some examples include: 

• Canada – Newspapers
• United Kingdom & Ireland – England – Newspapers 
• Mexico – Newspapers 

The FamilySearch Research Wiki is another must-see for trying to locate newspapers. Conduct a search for the place of interest and then you may find the category “newspapers” in the Records Type box. You can also conduct a search for the topic of newspapers (without a specific location) and find pages like Digital Historical Newspapers.

While FamilySearch does not have digitized newspapers they do have newspaper content that includes indexes and abstracts as well as some newspaper titles on microfilm.

In the genealogy world there are so many people who work hard to uncover and share resources. Many times this is a volunteer effort and three such examples are:

• Miriam Robbins’ Online Historical Newspapers
• Kenneth R Marks’ The Ancestor Hunt
• Dave Obee’s CanGenealogy 

On the Online Historical Newspapers website, you will find links to newspaper content for Australia, Ireland, Mexico, United Kingdom, and the United States. The Ancestor Hunt includes links for Australia, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, and the US. CanGenealogy includes historical Canadian newspaper links by Province as well as other Candian genealogy links.

Wikipedia is where you expect to find articles on a variety of topics. But it’s also a great resource find finding websites including newspaper archives. Wikipedia – List of Online Newspaper Archives is a list of online newspaper archives by country.

Newspapers are such an essential source for telling the story of your ancestor. Make sure to take some time to peruse newspaper finding aids to find the newspaper that will help you learn more about your family history.

You can watch my recent webinar "In Black and White: Finding Historical Newspapers From Around the World" on the Legacy website for FREE through Wednesday, November 4, 2020.

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

Every Friday we're pleased to offer Legacy Family Tree Webinar members a new, short ten minute or less TechZone video just for them! This Friday enjoy "An Easy Trick to Split PDF Pages" by Thomas MacEntee.

An Easy Trick to Split PDF Pages

What do you do with a large, multi-page PDF when you only need one or two pages? If you use Windows 10, you won’t believe this easy solution that’s been sitting right under your nose all this time.

About the Presenter

The recording of today's webinar by Gena Philibert-Ortega, "In Black and White: Finding Historical Newspapers From Around the World" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 29 minute recording of "In Black and White: Finding Historical Newspapers From Around the World" is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. If you have a webinar membership, it is available anytime.

Webinar Memberships/Subscriptions

Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 1,382 classes of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 5,358 pages)
• On-demand access to the live webinars' chat logs
• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
• Ability to view which webinars you are registered for
• Use of the playlist, resume watching, and jump-to features

Introductory pricing:

• Annual membership: $49.95/year

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

Print the 2020 webinar brochure here.

The recording of today's webinar by James Tanner, "Jumpstart Your MyHeritage Family Tree with Instant Discoveries" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free.

Webinar Description

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 15 minute recording of "Jumpstart Your MyHeritage Family Tree with Instant Discoveries" is now available to view in our webinar library for free. If you have a webinar membership, it is available anytime.

Webinar Memberships/Subscriptions

Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 1,381 classes of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 5,354 pages)
• On-demand access to the live webinars' chat logs
• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
• Ability to view which webinars you are registered for
• Use of the playlist, resume watching, and jump-to features

Introductory pricing:

• Annual membership: $49.95/year

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

Print the 2020 webinar brochure here.

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Tuesday, October 27, 2020 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer. Check at www.java.com.
6. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
7. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
8. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone. 

We look forward to seeing you all there!

The recording of today's webinar by Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL, "How Old Did He Have To Be…?" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 19 minute recording of "How Old Did He Have To Be…?" is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. If you have a webinar membership, it is available anytime.

Webinar Memberships/Subscriptions

Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 1,379 classes of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 5,354 pages)
• On-demand access to the live webinars' chat logs
• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
• Ability to view which webinars you are registered for
• Use of the playlist, resume watching, and jump-to features

Introductory pricing:

• Annual membership: $49.95/year

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

Print the 2020 webinar brochure here.

Housewife…you see that word, or its related term "keeping house," describing women in the census and other records. But were women always housewives?

You may think that having two working parents is a modern-day necessity, but for most families, that necessity is historical. Women have always had to work to provide for their families. Only families who were well off financially could afford to have wives not engage in paid employment.

Virginia Penny (1826-1913) set out to do something no one had done before. She documented 19^th century American women’s work. Her 1863 book, The Employments of Women: A Cyclopedia of Women’s Work (available on Google Books). This work follows her 1862 book, How women can make money married or single, in all branches of the arts and sciences, professions, trades, agricultural and mechanical pursuits. “Penny interviewed thousands of employers and workers in person and by mail-in survey questionnaires. From 1859 to 1861 in New York, she studied various occupations in which "women are, or may be engaged," ending up with 533 listings.”[1]

Virginia Penny documented women’s work for a time period that we incorrectly assume women didn’t work. However, the reality was that women needed to work. She writes in her preface,

I strongly advocate the plan of every female having a practical knowledge of some occupation by which to earn a livelihood. How do men fare that are raised without being fitted for any trade or profession, particularly those in the humbler walks of life? They become our most common and ill-paid laborers. So it is with women's work. If a female is not taught some regular occupation by which to earn a living, what can she do, when friends die, and she is without means? Even the labor that offers to men, situated as she is, is not at her disposal.

In the pages of her Cyclopedia are jobs and descriptions. These entries can help you better understand the time period and the jobs women held. Take, for example, this entry for coverlets where women employed by the interviewee appear to have some real advantages.

Some of the occupations described are all but unknown to us today, take for example, "bone collectors."

The entry “Postmistresses” provides a look at why women worked. 

I called on Mrs. W., who was for nearly two years at the ladies' window in the general post office, New York. Very few approved of a lady being there. She found some advantages, but many disadvantages arising from her position. In the first place, it yielded her and her child support, the salary being $600.

Penny writes that in 1854 there were 128 postmistresses, and they received the same pay as the postmasters. Her descriptions of jobs include duties and salary and explore the treatment of women in that job.

What's the benefit of looking at an older book such as Virginia Penny's Cyclopedia? Contemporary information. We can better understand our ancestors when we look at materials written at the time they were alive. This work offers us a sense of what it was like to be a working woman in the mid to later part of the 19^th century. And it gives us a sense of what was available to our female ancestors working and living in the United States. Using this, along with census data, newspapers, and archival records provide us with information that we can use to write a historical narrative.

In her dedication, Virginia Penny writes, “To Worthy and Industrious Women in the United States, Striving to Earn a Livelihood, this Book is Respectively Dedicated By The Author.” Virginia Penny was one of those women. Having worked as an economist conducting groundbreaking work in women's occupations, she later worked for the census bureau and was involved in the suffrage movement. Unfortunately, in her later years, she would be institutionalized by her brother and would die destitute in 1913. Virginia Penny knew the importance of women's work, and because of her, we can better understand what types of work 19^th-century women, our female ancestors, engaged in.

[1] “Virginia Penny, economist and suffragist,” HNet (https://networks.h-net.org/node/2289/discussions/158064/virginia-penny-economist-and-suffragist: accessed 13 October 2020).

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

Every Friday we're pleased to offer Legacy Family Tree Webinar members a new, short ten minute or less TechZone video just for them! This Friday enjoy "7 Easy Ideas for Better PowerPoint Design" by Diane Boumenot.

7 Easy Ideas for Better PowerPoint Design

Learn how to showcase your presentation with beautiful images in a PowerPoint presentation.

About the Presenter

The recording of today's webinar by Sunny Morton, "Comparing the Genealogy Giants 2020: Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast, and MyHeritage" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 21 minute recording of "Comparing the Genealogy Giants 2020: Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast, and MyHeritage" is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. If you have a webinar membership, it is available anytime.

Webinar Memberships/Subscriptions

Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 1,377 classes of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 5,354 pages)
• On-demand access to the live webinars' chat logs
• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
• Ability to view which webinars you are registered for
• Use of the playlist, resume watching, and jump-to features

Introductory pricing:

• Annual membership: $49.95/year

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

Print the 2020 webinar brochure here.

The recording of tonight's webinar by the Board for Certification of Genealogists and Angela Packer McGhie, CG, "Using DNA Test Results to Confirm a Pedigree" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

Webinar Description

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 21 minute recording of "Using DNA Test Results to Confirm a Pedigree" is now available to view in our webinar library for free for a limited time. If you have a webinar membership, it is available anytime.

Webinar Memberships/Subscriptions

Webinar Members get:

• On-demand access to the entire webinar archives (now 1,376 classes of genealogy education)
• On-demand access to the instructor handouts (now 5,354 pages)
• On-demand access to the live webinars' chat logs
• 5% off all products at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com (must be logged in at checkout)
• Access to all future recordings for the duration of their membership
• Chance for a members-only door prize during each live webinar
• Access to register for bonus members-only webinars
• Ability to view which webinars you are registered for
• Use of the playlist, resume watching, and jump-to features

Introductory pricing:

• Annual membership: $49.95/year

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

Print the 2020 webinar brochure here.