Alberta Newspapers

Online Records

 * Web: Alberta, Newspaper BMD Index, 1889-2012, index
 * 1885-2001 -University of Calgary Early Alberta Newspapers
 * Peel's Prairie Provinces Newspapers
 * Lethbridge Daily Herald (Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada), index and images, ($)
 * The Lethbridge Herald (Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada), index and images, ($)
 * Canadian Deaths 1878-1886: Abstracted from The Dominion Annual Register and Review
 * The Ancestor Hunt : Ontario Online Historical Newspapers Summary

Resources for Alberta Newspapers
Newspapers can be a very valuable source of information; from an overview of life in an ancestor’s community to an informative obituary on his/her life.

Alberta’s first newspaper, The Edmonton Bulletin, started publication in 1880; The Calgary Herald in 1883. The Calgary Tribune, 1883, became The Albertan in 1886. Local newspapers ran in small cities and towns but often intermittently.

Newspaper Directories

 * Gloria M. Strathern. Alberta newspapers, 1880-1982: an historical directory. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1988.


 * University of Alberta - Peel’s Prairie Provinces - Find Newspapers

Libraries and Archives
Collections of Alberta newspapers are at the Provincial Archives, the Alberta Legislative Library, the Glenbow-Alberta Institute Library, the University of Alberta Library, the University of Lethbridge Library, and the University of Calgary Library.

Provincial Archives of Alberta 8555 Roper Road Edmonton, Alberta T6E 5W1 Telephone: 780-427-1750 Email: paa@gov.ab.ca


 * The Legislature Library has a nearly complete collection of weeklies from 1905.

Legislative Assembly of Alberta - Library Services 216 Legislature Building 10800-97th Avenue Edmonton, Alberta T5K 2B6 Telephone: (780)427- 2473 Email: [mailto:library.requests@assembly.ab.ca library.requests@assembly.ab.ca]

Digital Issues Online

 * Alberta Family Histories Society - Newspaper Announcements (1883-1902)


 * The Lethbridge Herald is available online (1905-1955). The paper is available at both the Lethbridge Herald Newspaper Collection ($) and NewspaperArchive.com ($). Note: Both sites are run by NewspaperArchive.com, however, the two sites have different subscription prices. NewspaperArchive.com provides access to thousands of other newspapers as well.

Wainwright Public Library

Wainwright Newspaper Archives Wainwright Star Newspaper 100 years digitized and searchable. Go to bottom of the library page for link.

Alberta Published Indexes

 * Obituaries index of the Barrhead Leader, by Flora and John Stewart (n.d.) and their Marriage index from the Barrhead leader, 1928-1949 (1994).


 * Mary Kearns Trace. Birth, marriage and death notices of “the Alberta tribune,” Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 1897-1899. Calgary: Traces, 1986.


 * Jack F. Layton.Vital statistics from the Innisfail free lance and the Innisfail providence, 1902-1925. Innisfail: Layton, 1993.

Some Edmonton indexes currently covering 1903-1908 are available from Rob Milson, 8616-176 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta T5T 0N3. He says they contain, “The original extract or in some cases a paraphrasing of longer extracts, as well as an alphabetized index of all names, that is the name of the person/s about whom the article is concerned as well as other named individuals.”

Alberta Unpublished Indexes
Edmonton: There are film or card files at Edmonton Public Library (from 1961) and the City of Edmonton Archives has manuscript extracts from ca. 1907-1950s.

The provincial archives has index booklets 1880-1900.

Other manuscript indexes are at the Legislative Library of Alberta (clippings from 1971), Alberta Genealogical Society library in Edmonton.