Newspapers.c​​​​​om collections include records from over 600 million newspaper pages ranging from the 1700s–2000s.

Contents

• Do I need a membership to view records from Newspapers.c​om? 
• What information can I find in Newspapers.c​om collections? 
• How can I find Newspapers.c​om obituaries and marriage records on Ancestry? 
• How can I save Newspapers.c​om records to my Ancestry tree? 
• How do I report issues or add correct information? 
• How are Newspapers.c​om records indexed? 
• How do newspapers become searchable?

Do I need a membership to view records from Newspapers.c​​om?

Yes. With an Ancestry membership, you can see indexed records from Newspapers.c​​​om and may receive Newspapers.c​​​om records as hints in your tree. The All Access membership includes access to the Newspapers.c​​​​​om Publisher Extra membership. 

What information can I find in the Newspapers.c​​om collections?

Newspapers.c​​​om has over 700 million searchable newspaper page images rich in family history details, including obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, social page mentions of family events, news articles, and photos.

How can I find Newspapers.c​​om obituaries and marriage records on Ancestry?

Obituaries often include the surviving members and additional family members named in obituaries, so you may see Ancestry Hints in obituaries for people who are still living. For help searching all obituaries on Ancestry, see Finding Obituary Records. All marriage records can be searched here. 

1. Go to the obituary index or marriage index and skip to step 4 (or from any page on Ancestry, click the Search tab and select Card Catalog).
2. In the Keywords field on the left side of the page, type “newspapers.c​​om obituaries” or "newspapers.c​​om marriage" and click Search.
3. From the list of results, click Newspapers.c​​​​​om Obituary Index or U.S., Newspapers.c​​​​​om Marriage Index, 1800s – current.
4. Enter information and click Search.
5. From the list of search results, click View Record next to a result you want to view.
6. Click thumbnail image of the record. You’ll be brought to Newspapers.c​​​​​om.
7. Sign in to Newspapers.c​​​​​om with your Ancestry credentials. If you’re already signed in, skip this step. If you have an All Access membership and are prompted to link your Ancestry account to your Newspapers.c​​​​​om account, do that first.
8. You should now see the newspaper page. If that newspaper is part of a Newspapers.c​​​​​om membership that you don’t have access to, you’ll see the option to start or upgrade to that membership.

How can I save Newspapers.com records to my Ancestry tree?

When you find an image on Newspapers.c​​​om that you want to save to your tree, click on the image. In the menu that appears, click the Ancestry logo > Sign in to Ancestry > Select a family tree and select a person > Next > Add facts > Save.

How do I report issues or add correct information?

If you find an error in a newspaper or want to add searchable information, you can add alternate information or report the issue either from Ancestry or from Newspapers.c​​​​​om.

Adding alternate information

1. On Newspapers.c​​​​​om, from the image of a newspaper, click the section you want to add information to.
2. In the menu that appears, click Add alternate info.
3. Click a pencil next to a fact to add alternate information, or click Add additional fact to add a new fact.
4. The alternate fact will appear in green. When you’re finished adding alternate facts, click Done.
5. To see alternate facts, click a newspaper section, then click the three dots beside a fact.

Reporting issues

1. On Newspapers.c​​​​​om, from the image of a newspaper, click the section you want to report an issue for.
2. In the menu that appears, click Report issue.
3. Select the problem(s) and click Send.

For help adding alternate information or reporting an issue on Ancestry, see Correcting a Record.

How are Newspapers.c​​om records indexed?

To index the content on Newspapers.c​​​​​om, we use new machine learning technology to look at the pages, section them into individual articles, and then identify which ones are obituaries or marriage announcements. Once identified, this new technology extracts key details including:

• name(s) of the deceased
• names of spouses
• family members
• relationships
• important dates
• location information

This information is then put into a searchable database making it simpler for you to discover the records.

How do newspapers become searchable?

To make the content of older newspapers searchable, Newspapers.c​​​​​​om scans them with optical character recognition (OCR) technology, a type of software that converts printed text into an editable computer file.

OCR technology has transformed the world’s accessibility to printed documents, and for the most part, it’s quite reliable. However, its accuracy depends on the quality of the document being scanned. When a newspaper is faded or damaged, its transcription may contain some errors.