Ever wonder what life was like in old New Mexico? Or do you have ancestors from that area? Check out the Albuquerque Journal on Newspapers.com, with issues dating back to 1882.

The Albuquerque Journal’s history began in 1880, when the death of the publisher of a paper called the Golden Gate left Albuquerque without a daily paper, creating an opening for the launch of an evening paper called the Albuquerque Daily Journal. The paper (renamed the Albuquerque Morning Journal) became a morning daily in 1882, and it is actually from this date, rather than 1880, that the paper calculated its centennial celebrations held in 1982.

In 1887, the Morning Journal was absorbed by the Albuquerque Daily Democrat, but in 1899 the combined paper was renamed the Albuquerque Journal-Democrat. It claimed to be the only New Mexico paper at the time that published the full afternoon and night Associated Press dispatches. In 1903, the name changed once again—this time reverting to the title of Albuquerque Morning Journal. It was a self-proclaimed Republican paper, though it would later shed its party affiliation and become politically independent. The paper finally landed on the title it has today—the Albuquerque Journal—in 1926, the same year it merged with the Evening Herald.

In 1933, then-publisher of the Albuquerque Journal Thomas Pepperday changed the newspaper industry when he created the nation’s first joint operating agreement by combining the business operations of two papers (the Journal and the Albuquerque Tribune) but keeping their editorial staff separate. Other cities later followed suit and adopted this model, sometimes called the “Albuquerque Plan,” which allows cities to support two daily papers when they otherwise could only support one.

Throughout its history, the Albuquerque Journal has covered local, state, national, and international news. Today, it is New Mexico’s oldest and largest paper, with circulation throughout the state, as well as into parts of Texas, Colorado, and Arizona.

Get started searching or browsing the Albuquerque Journal on Newspapers.com!

* With a Newspapers.com Basic subscription, you can view issues of the Journal from 1882 to 1977; or, with a Publisher Extra subscription, access those early years as well as issues between 1978 and 2017.

Do you have ancestors from the Tidewater region of Virginia, or are you interested in the area’s history? Check out the Newport News Daily Press on Newspapers.com, with issues dating back to 1898*!

When the Daily Press began publication in 1896, Newport News was in the middle of making the transition from rural town to urban city. Fifteen years earlier, a railway had been built to allow coal to be shipped from the town’s port, and a few years after that, an influential dry dock and shipyard had opened on the waterfront—both of which led to an economic boom for Newport News.

The Newport News Daily Press started out as a four-page paper, sold for a penny a copy. The owner and first editor was Charles E. Thacker, who ran the paper for about 14 years. The Daily Press eventually became the primary daily morning paper of the Virginia Peninsula. In 1913, the new owners of the Daily Press also bought the Times-Herald (the area’s main afternoon paper), and the two papers were jointly owned but separately operated for many years (until 1991, when the Times-Herald ceased publication).

In 1930, the two papers were bought by William E. Rouse, and they stayed in the family for more than 55 years. From 1958 to 1973, the Daily Press was published in a 9-column format, making it the widest in the state. In 1986, the papers were finally sold to the Tribune Company (now Tronc, Inc., which continues to own the Daily Press). The Daily Press is today the main paper of the lower and middle peninsulas in Virginia.

If you’re looking for your ancestors in the Daily Press, a good place to look—as in many papers—is the society and personal columns. Over the years, as the Newport News got bigger and the paper got longer, so did the society column, which eventually evolved into a society section multiple pages long. Society news is wonderful for finding anecdotal information about your ancestors, such as whose card party they attended, where they traveled, whose funeral they attended, when they got sick or went to the hospital, where they went to school, and so on.

If you love old comics, the Daily Press is a great place to find them, as it expanded its Sunday comics section to 16 pages starting in February 1935.

Get started searching or browsing the Newport News Daily Press on Newspapers.com!

* With a Newspapers.com Basic subscription, you can view issues of the “Daily Press” from 1898 to 1922; or, with a Publisher Extra subscription, access those early years as well as issues between 1923 and 2017.

Do you have ancestors from Arizona? Or are you interested in Arizona history? Newspapers.com has added the Arizona Daily Star, with issues from 1879 to 2017.*

The Arizona Daily Star is a daily morning paper that began publishing in Tucson on January 12, 1879, more than 30 years before Arizona became a state. The paper was started as a complement to the already existing Arizona Weekly Star (which would publish until 1907). The Daily Star’s first editor was L.C. Hughes, who would later go on to become governor of the Arizona Territory. Though it was initially called the Arizona Star, within a matter of months the name was changed to the Arizona Daily Star, which it has kept ever since. Despite competition, the paper eventually grew to be a powerful force in Arizona politics and influential throughout the southwest.

Some items of interest from the Daily Star include:

• 1880 editorial calling on Tucson authorities to improve sanitation in the city
• Front page from when Arizona gained statehood in 1912
• Front page from 1934 announcing the capture of John Dillinger and his gang in Tucson
• The 1939 15th annual special rodeo edition
• Article from 1981 announcing that Daily Star reporters won a Pulitzer Prize
• 2011 front page reporting the Gabrielle Giffords shooting

If you have ancestors from southern Arizona or the Tucson area, you might just find them mentioned in the Daily Star. Likely places to find them include the personals column, society column, and local news briefs.
From these columns you can learn tidbits like “Miss Vida Cooper, daughter of Mrs. William F. Cooper, […] is spending the summer in San Francisco where she is continuing her vocal studies” and “Frank Tom Gibbings, graduate second lieutenant in the cavalry reserve has received promotion to grade first lieutenant.”

Get started searching or browsing the Arizona Daily Star on Newspapers.com!

With a Newspapers.com Basic subscription, you can view issues of the Daily Star from 1879 to 1922; or, with a Publisher Extra subscription, access those early years as well as issues between 1923 and 2017.

Do you have family from Minnesota, particularly the Minneapolis area? Or are you interested in Minnesota history? Come explore* three related Minneapolis papers on Newspapers.com: the Star Tribune, the Minneapolis Star, and the Minneapolis Journal. The pasts of these three papers are closely connected through a long history of buy-outs and consolidation, finally resulting in the Star Tribune that exists today as Minnesota’s biggest newspaper

In 1939, the Cowles family also bought the Minneapolis Journal (a top Minneapolis paper that had begun publication in 1878) and combined it with the Star as the Star-Journal. Not long after, the family also bought the Tribune, and the Tribune then served as a morning paper, while the Star-Journal (renamed the Star in 1947) functioned as the evening paper. Due to low circulation, the Star was discontinued in 1982, and the Tribune was renamed the Minneapolis Star and Tribune; the title was simplified to the Star Tribune in 1987.

The Minneapolis papers on Newspapers.com contain a wealth of information for anyone looking for information on ancestors from the area or doing research into Minnesota’s history. The overlap of the dates coved by these papers means that you’re that much more likely to find mentions of the person or topic you’re looking for. The Star Tribune (which on Newspapers.com also includes issues of the Tribune) has issues from 1867 to 2017. Newspapers.com has issues of the Journal from 1901 to 1906. And the Star has issues from 1920 to 1982.

Get started searching or browsing the Star Tribune, the Minneapolis Star, and the Minneapolis Journal on Newspapers.com!

* With a Newspapers.com Basic subscription, you can view issues up through 1922; or, with a Publisher Extra subscription, access those early years as well as issues between 1923 and 2017.

Newspapers.com has added issues* for three major papers: the Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel, and Hartford Courant! Since these papers each come from a different region of the United States (Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and New England), together they provide important coverage of the eastern half of the country.

Baltimore Sun
The largest paper in Maryland, the Baltimore Sun was founded in 1837. From the beginning, the paper operated under the philosophy of “news for all,” not just the moneyed classes, and focused on hard facts. By 1872, the paper had an official Washington bureau, and over the ensuing years added bureaus across the country and around the world. Interested in technological innovation, the Sun was an early adopter of technologies from the telegraph to the computer. Newspapers.com has issues from 1837–2016.

Orlando Sentinel
The Orlando Sentinel, a major paper in central Florida, traces its roots back to the Orange County Reporter, which began publishing in 1876 and is recognized as the first regular paper in Orlando. Today’s Sentinel is a product of various mergers between the Reporter, Orlando Evening Star, and South Florida (Orlando Morning) Sentinel. After various name changes, it became the Orlando Sentinel in 1982. Newspapers.com has issues from 1916–2016.

Hartford Courant
Founded in 1764, the Hartford Courant is one of the oldest continuously published papers in the United States and the biggest paper in Connecticut. The Courant began publishing before the United States was even its own country, and the paper had the widest circulation in colonial America. The Courant was seen as so important that when its paper mill was burned down during the Revolutionary War, the Connecticut legislature approved a lottery to pay for it to be rebuilt. Newspapers.com has issues from 1764–2016.

Explore these and other papers on Newspapers.com!

*With a Newspapers.com Basic subscription, you can see issues of these papers through 1922; or, with a Publisher Extra subscription, access those early years and additional issues from 1923 onward.

Do you have ancestors from Kentucky? Then check out the Courier-Journal on Newspapers.com!

The Courier-Journal was created in 1868 by the merger of two Louisville papers: the Daily Journal (founded in 1830) and the Daily Courier (founded in 1844 as the Morning Courier). Before their merger, the Daily Journal and the Daily Courier were at odds with each other politically, particularly during the Civil War when the Journal was anti-slavery and the Courier supported the Confederacy. The first edition of the combined Courier-Journal was published on November 8, 1868.

The paper temporarily ended up on rocky ground in the late 1890s due to its vocal opposition to the Democratic presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan. When the historically Democrat Kentucky voted Republican in the 1896 election, local Democratic leaders blamed the Courier-Journal, and the paper lost advertisers and readers.

As the paper moved into the 20^th century, it gained a reputation for supporting progressive causes, producing quality journalism, and standing by its sometimes unpopular convictions. The paper increased its coverage by setting up news bureaus throughout Kentucky while also emphasizing national and international news. It currently has been awarded 10 Pulitzer Prizes, the first in 1918 and the most recent in 2005.

As the main newspaper in Louisville and an important paper in the region, the Courier-Journal documented the city’s memorable moments, such as the first Kentucky Derby in 1875, the 1890 and 1974 F4 tornadoes, and the Great Flood of 1937.

If you have ancestors or other family members from the Louisville region, try looking for them in the Courier-Journal. The Sunday social pages of the paper are an especially good place to look for mentions and photos of locals. The paper also has the typical lists of births, marriages, deaths, divorces, and more.

With a Newspapers.com Basic subscription, you can view issues of the Courier-Journal from 1830 to 1922; or, with a Publisher Extra subscription, access those early years as well as issues between 1923 and 2016.

Get started searching or browsing the Courier-Journal on Newspapers.com.

Newspapers.com now has issues of the Guardian, one of the United Kingdom’s leading national papers! With issues dating back to 1821, you can explore nearly 200 years of British news and history.

The Guardian was founded in 1821 in the industrial city of Manchester, where the paper would remain (as the Manchester Guardian) until the 1960s, when it moved to London. The paper first began with weekly issues (and later twice weekly issues), since a tax on newspapers made it too costly to publish more frequently. But after about 30 years, after the government dropped the tax, the Guardian began publishing daily in 1855.

Originally founded as left-leaning paper, the paper temporarily shifted right in its early years, before returning to the left, where it remains today (in the center-left). Though it was long an important regional paper, the Guardian first gained its reputation nationally and internationally during the 57-year tenure of editor C.P. Scott, which began in 1872.

The Guardian remains internationally respected today and is particularly known for its investigative journalism. The Guardian has been owned by a trust (now a limited company) since 1936, which allows the paper to maintain its financial and editorial independence. After the paper’s move to London in 1964, it faced greater competition and financial challenges, but a series of innovations and redesigns in the 1970s and ’80s (and in the decades since) allowed the Guardian to maintain its status as a leading national paper of the UK.

Since the Guardian was long based in Manchester, the paper can be a good resource for finding ancestors from that area, particularly if they were involved in any news-worthy events. Even if you don’t find mentions of your relatives, the Guardian is rich in information about what was going on in Manchester (and later, London) and the rest of the nation, enabling you to learn about local and national events that may have affected your family members.

With a Newspapers.com Basic subscription, you can view issues of the Guardian from 1821 to 1900; or, with a Publisher Extra subscription, view those early years plus issues from 1901 to 2003. Issues of the Guardian’s sister paper, the Observer, are also available (1791–1900 with a Basic subscription; 1791–2003 with Publisher Extra).

2016 was a great year for Newspapers.com. We added over 800 new papers to our site, which adds up to an additional 100 million+ pages of new content! Can you believe it? That means Newspapers.com now has upwards of 4,400 papers, with more coming in 2017. Finding your ancestors in the newspaper has never been easier!

With so many titles added to our site in 2016, some of them may have escaped your notice. So here’s a look at four major papers added to Newspapers.com last year:

The Los Angeles Times. Explore 135 years of Southern California history! Established in 1881, the Los Angeles Times has been the leading paper in the City of Angels since the 1940s, winning 42 Pulitzer Prizes to date. Newspapers.com has issues from 1881–2016.
The Philadelphia Inquirer. One of the oldest surviving papers in the United States, the Philadelphia Inquirer gained its reputation during the Civil War, when it became one of the best-regarded papers for accurate war news. One of the nation’s most prominent papers, the Inquirer focused on comprehensive news coverage for much of its history, making it a particularly valuable source for learning about the events and issues prevalent in your ancestors’ day. Newspapers.com has issues from 1860–2016.
The Arizona Republic. When the paper began publishing in 1890, there were already two papers in Phoenix, but by 1915 the Arizona Republic had become the largest paper in the state. The Republic boasted full coverage of the Associated Press wires, as well as coverage of news from the city of Phoenix and the rest of Arizona. Newspapers.com has issues from 1890–2016.
The Des Moines Register. A daily morning paper for much of its history, the Des Moines Register grew to become the most influential newspaper in Iowa and an important regional paper. If you have ancestors from Iowa, the Des Moines Register is a great place to look for them, as the paper historically had strong local and statewide coverage and also published numerous photographs of locals. Newspapers.com has issues from 1871–2016.

To stay up-to-date with Newspapers.com’s newest additions, check out the New & Updated page.

*With a Newspapers.com Basic subscription, you can see issues of these papers through 1922; or, with a Publisher Extra subscription, access those early years and additional issues from 1923 onward.

If you or your family lived in Philadelphia, take a walk down memory lane by searching or browsing the Philadelphia Daily News.

The Philadelphia Daily News was founded in 1925 with the money of William Scott Vare, a candidate in the 1926 U.S. Senate race. When it became evident that none of the existing Philadelphia papers would endorse him, Vare started his own.

From its beginning, the Daily News was an urban-focused, picture-based paper, covering hot news items like celebrities, crime, politics, and sports. Although known for its passionate, gritty reporting and its memorable, sometimes controversial front pages, the tabloid-sized Daily News also boasts three Pulitzer Prizes (1985, 1992, and 2010), among other awards.

In 1957, the Daily News was bought by the publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the two remained sister papers for years, despite several changes in ownership, until, within the last decade, the Daily News became an edition of the Inquirer. In 2011, the Daily News introduced a Sunday issue.

Explore the last 50 years of Philadelphia history in the Daily News, from the big headlines (like the 1964 race riot, 1980 slaying of mob boss Angelo Bruno, and 2015 visit to the city by Pope Francis) to the smaller news items (like when two babysitters led three kids to safety during a 1970 fire, or when someone was reported to be hanging out of a 25th-floor window in 1965).

And since the Daily News includes plenty of photos, you never know who you might find a photo of, whether it’s the five children of the Crooch family in 1965, three generations of women who volunteered at a local hospital in 1970, or your own family members.

With a Publisher Extra subscription you can access Newspapers.com’s collection of the Daily News, which currently includes issues from 1960 to 2016. Get started searching or browsing the Philadelphia Daily News here.

Do you have ancestors from Florida? Check out the Palm Beach Post on Newspapers.com! With a Newspapers.com Basic subscription, you can see issues of the Palm Beach Post from 1916 through 1922; or, with a Publisher Extra subscription, access those early years and additional issues from 1922 to 2016.

Florida’s Palm Beach Post first began publishing in 1908 under the name Palm Beach County, but in 1916 (by this time called the Palm Beach Post) the paper made the switch from running weekly issues to being a morning daily.
As the self-proclaimed official paper of the city of West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County, the Post ran many interesting articles, editorials, and cartoons over the years, reporting on issues and events that were important to the county’s residents.

For example, in September 1928, the Palm Beach Post covered the Okeechobee hurricane, which made landfall not far from West Palm Beach. While the hurricane itself was deadly and caused much damage, also extremely threatening was the storm surge caused by Lake Okeechobee overflowing its dike, which resulted in flooding over hundreds of square miles—up to 20 feet high in some places. Altogether, the storm caused more than 4,000 deaths. A few days after the hurricane, the Post reported on a family who survived because their house had floated in the floodwaters. The wife is recorded as saying, “The wind seemed to change and I stepped off the porch and immediately disappeared in water over my head. […] Our house was afloat, it floated for more than half a mile.”

Another item of local interest ran in October 1938, when the paper followed the local upset surrounding a canceled circus parade. A circus had come to town, and there was much discussion about whether the circus would be able to parade its animals through town as part of the show. When the city decided last minute to allow the parade, excitement was high; but disappointingly for the local kids, the circus decided not to hold a parade, as it would conflict with the afternoon performance. The Post ran an editorial the following day that piled on the guilt, remarking, “Sometime the guy who gave the order to cancel the circus parade yesterday will remember a crying kid along the curb, and he’ll wonder if the money he saved was worth it.”

If you have family or ancestors from the Palm Beach area, you might find them in the Post in “personal mention” columns, news of local WWII servicemen, engagement announcements, death and burial notices, birth announcements, society and club news, court records, school honor rolls, or maybe even lists of candidates running for local office—just to name a few!

Get started searching or browsing the Palm Beach Post on Newspapers.com!