The National Genealogical Society offers its paid individual
members many benefits. One favorite is the free subscription to
NewspaperArchive. If you haven’t yet searched its database, you are in for a
treat. Its extensive, easy-to-use collection will undoubtedly make it one of
your favorite benefits.
What is NewspaperArchive?
NewspaperArchive is an online, historical newspaper database.
A yearly subscription normally costs $95 and change. As an NGS member, you have
free access to its entire database with 280+ million pages of digitized
newspaper content from over 15,500 different publication titles from the United
States and many other countries around the world. Newspapers span 1736 to
present day.
How Do You Access This Member Benefit?
First, go to the NGS website and log into your account. You’ll know you are logged in because you’ll see the Welcome [your name] message at the top right. Now, click on Member Benefits at the top toolbar and select Individual Member Benefits. You’ll find NewspaperArchive listed on the drop-down menu.
Click on NewspaperArchive. This will take you to the
NewspaperArchive web page on the NGS website. From this web page, click on the
blue Access NewspaperArchive button.
Clicking on the blue button brings you to the
NewspaperArchive website homepage. You can start your search on this page.
Please note: ignore the user log-in at the top right of the page, you are
already logged in via your NGS account.
From the homepage you can do a basic search by name, keyword, or newspaper titles. If you need more options for searching, click on the Advanced Search link at the bottom of the search box. The Advanced Search enhances your search by allowing you to search by name, location, keywords, publication, and date. Once you conduct a basic search, such as on a name, you will have the opportunity to narrow your search on your results page by country or US state and city and by date range.
Your search results list will include the number of results,
thumbnails images of the results, and ways to narrow your results on the
right-hand side of the page.
Click on one of your results and you will be taken to the
newspaper page. At the top, you’ll see the publication name and date, page
numbers, and the Find on Page function. Fill in a name or keyword and it will
be highlighted on the newspaper page. At the top right, you can choose to download
the image of that newspaper page, save it to your computer or print it. At the
top left you can choose to brighten or add contrast to the newspaper page or
zoom in or out.
Start Using NewspaperArchive Today
If you haven’t tried searching for your ancestors on NewspaperArchive, give it a try. You may discover a long lost relative or uncover a story about a great grandfather. And, if you have used it in the past, be sure to check back in. NewspaperArchive is consistently adding new content. To learn more about searching NewspaperArchive, see the NGS video by Mary Roddy, Finding Treasures in NewspaperArchive: How an NGSQ Editor Mines this New Member Benefit.
Enjoy one of the best free member benefits from NGS!
