Tag Archives: historic newspapers

Genealogy Search Tips for Chronicling America

January 13, 2014 VTDNP 4 Comments

seq-1(13) — Often marriages are printed in varying detail in historic newspapers. This notice appeared, among others, in the Bennington Banner and Reformer, October 15, 1903.

The search for ancestors, while generally rewarding, can be difficult and time-consuming; as an amateur genealogist I can attest to this. For genealogy research, certainly, historic newspapers contain a wealth of information about relatives, for newspapers can include local news, marriages and deaths, participant lists (military recruitment lists, organizations, meetings, parties), advertisements, social and political functions, local individual updates (e.g., “Mrs. William Johnson received her parents this past Wednesday”–these may or may not be helpful!), and legal notices (deeds, court happenings, divorces, estates). This is, if you can find it amid hundreds of thousands of pages. Generally, this has often meant hours of scanning newspaper microfilm or going through actual newspapers at a historical society or library.

Thankfully, Chronicling America provides an online platform for searching historic newspapers from across the United States. Chronicling America is an accessible and free search tool that greatly eases the search of newspapers for traces of the past. Currently, thirty-eight states, including Vermont, have over 6.6 million pages from 1,105 newspapers available for search on the website from the years of 1836-1922. Continue reading Genealogy Search Tips for Chronicling America →

User Spotlight Series: Vermont Milk Chocolate Company

December 2, 2013 VTDNP 2 Comments

Periodically, we’ll be interviewing researchers and showcasing projects that are using content from Vermont historical newspapers on Chronicling America.

Our first interviewee is Frances Gubler, a graduate historic preservation student at the University of Vermont, who has been conducting research this fall on historic industrial and manufacturing buildings on Flynn Avenue in Burlington, Vermont, as part of a class research project. Fran graciously agreed to meet and share some of her newspaper findings.

To start, I asked Fran what she found valuable about Chronicling America.
“Chronicling America is easy to use. Microfilm is interesting, but it is also intimidating. With Chronicling America, you can do a quick keyword search and get results,” said Fran. Continue reading User Spotlight Series: Vermont Milk Chocolate Company →

Behind The Scene: Production Update of November 2013

November 5, 2013 VTDNP 1 Comment

Recently, VTDNP workspace received the rest of the microfilm reels to be digitized from our vendor. Approximately 76 reels of historic Vermont newspapers are ready to be digitized. These titles can be found on the bottom of this page. Please note that we pair master negative microfilm reel with its duplicate negative side by side. We also will add working microfilm copy (the ones stacked on top of the reels) for quality inspection.

Also, we have received the digitized files of Cronaca Sovversiva. Please scroll down to see one version of their illustrated mast heads. We’ll keep you updated when the title have been ingested into Chronicling America‘s database. Grazie!

Cronaca Sovversiva masthead 1905 — Cronaca Sovversiva masthead from Saturday, January 7, 1905. Year 3 Number 1.

Resuming shipment to the Library of Congress

October 21, 2013 VTDNP

After a couple of weeks of shutdown, the government is operating again. While they were on hiatus, VTDNP continued to work on production and have gathered three batches (including two reworks) to be sent to the Library of Congress. They are on their way to DC now.

Furthermore, we have new content that will come out together with the next Chronicling America update. In the meantime, check out our newly-created FLICKR and PINTEREST account. Read and see more about it…

cases ready to go — Pelican cases containing external HDs containing VTDNP batch of digitized microfilms; posing before getting packed to be sent to the Library of Congress, post-Government-Shutdown.

Photos from NDNP Awardee Meeting 2013

September 19, 2013 VTDNP

As mentioned in a previous post, Project Director (Birdie MacLennan), Project Librarian (Erenst Anip), and Digital Support Specialist (Karyn Norwood) attended and presented at the National Digital Newspaper Project (NDNP) Awardee Meeting, September 11-13 in Washington DC. Click HERE for photos from the event.