Daily AncestorFind the newspaper notice
Search a free digitized newspaper for one death, marriage or local item about an ancestor, and read the date words carefully.
A short notice can name parents, a maiden name or a home town that no other record gives. Old notices also use date shorthand that is easy to misread.
Your steps this week
- Choose an event with a known approximate date and place.
- Search a free newspaper site such as Chronicling America from the Library of Congress, or your state's digital newspaper project.
- When you find a notice, transcribe it exactly and note the paper, date and page.
- Work out any dates written as inst. or ult. against the date of the paper.
- Add any new names to your notes as leads, not facts, until another record confirms them.