New York Newspapers

United States U.S. Newspapers  New York  Newspapers

Newspapers mention births, marriages, deaths, anniversaries, family gatherings, family travel, achievements, business notices, engagement information, probate court proceedings, and other news items. Some newspapers are indexed.

History
The earliest known newspaper published in New York State was the New York Gazette which commenced publishing in New York City in 1725. It was followed in 1733 by John Peter Zenger’s New York Journal, made famous in a 1735 court decision that established freedom of the press in the province (colony) of New York. For more details.

Colonial Newspapers
In the colonial period, most of the newspapers in the New York were published in New York City.

Colonial (pre 1775) newspapers for New York, along with transcripts and web locations, are:

Albany


 * 1771-1772 Albany Gazette – no known transcripts have survived

New York City


 * New York Gazette 
 * 1733-1751 New-York Weekly Journal; GenealogyBank.com
 * Grace Kneale. “Early Death Notices from Zenger’s New York Journal, “ New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 47-49 1916-1918, [serialized]
 * Kenneth Scott. Genealogical Data from Colonial New York Newspapers: A Consolidation of Articles from the New York, Genealogical and Biographical Record. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977). [Gazette pp. 1-13 from NYG&amp;BR 95 (October 1964): 220-232, Journal pp. 14-28 from NYG&amp;BR 96 (January 1965): 1-15.]
 * 1743-1773 Parker’s New-York Gazette: or, The Weekly Post-Boy
 * Kenneth Scott. Genealogical Data from the New York Post-Boy 1743-1773. (Washington: National Genealogical Society, 1970).
 * 1744-1753 New-York Evening Post GenealogyBank.com
 * 1752-1768 The New-York Mercury 
 * Kenneth Scott, GDCNYN, pp 29-128; NYG&amp;BR 96-99 (1965-1968), [serialized]
 * “Vital Records from Old New York Newspapers.” Journal of American Genealogy, 1 (1921): 66-70, 160-161, 255-260, 325 -330.
 * 1752-1753 The Independent Reflector GenealogyBank.com 
 * 1753 The Occasional Reverberator
 * 1755 The Instructor
 * 1755 John Englishman
 * 1766-1775 The New-York Journal; or, The General Advertiser
 * 1759-1767 The New-York Gazette
 * 1762 The American Chronicle
 * 1763 The New-York Pacquet
 * 1768-1775 The New-York Gazette and the Weekly Mercury Newsbank.com GenealogyBank.com 
 * Kenneth Scott GDCNYN, pp. 129-243; NYG&amp;BR vol. 99-107 (1968-1976).[serialized]
 * New-York Chronicle 1769-1770 Newsbank.com
 * 1773-1775 Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer; or the Connecticut, Hudson’s River, New Jersey, and Quebec Weekly Advertiser [http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/newspapers/explore/USA/New_York/New_York/ GenealogyBank.com
 * Kenneth Scott, Rivington’s New York Newspaper: Excerpts from a Loyalist Press, 1773-1783, (Binghamton, N.Y.: The New-York Hist. Soc., 1973).
 * 1775+New-York Constitutional Gazette GenealogyBank.com

Libraries and Archives
The New York State Library and the New York Public Library have large collections of New York newspapers. A guide, now outdated, to newspapers is A Checklist of Newspapers in Microform in the New York State Library (Albany, New York: New York State Library, 1979). Most New York newspapers have been microfilmed, and you can borrow them through interlibrary loan.

Newspapers for some cities may still be found only at the public library in that community. Many local historical and genealogical societies have copies of newspapers from their area and are indexing them. A good source is Sylvia G. Faibisoff and Wendell Tripp, compilers, A Bibliography of Newspapers in Fourteen New York Counties (Cooperstown, New York: New York Historical Association, 1978; Family History Library ). This source lists newspapers of Allegany, Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, and Yates counties.

Newspaper Directory
The U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present is a national directory from the Library of Congress of over 140,000 newspaper titles. The directory provides a list of libraries from around the country that have the newspapers in their collections.

Digital Issues Online
In 2007, New York Times issues from 1851-1922 and 1987 to the present were made available at no charge by the New York Times Web site. Some issues from 1923-1986 still require an access fee.

NewspaperArchive.com ($) has a large collection, over 4 million pages of New York newspapers (mostly Syrscuse) online. This database is sometimes free at libraries under the name Access NewspaperArchive.

Hudson River Valley Heritage (HRVH) Historical Newspapers The Hudson River Valley Newspaper Projent should eventually includes major newspapers from the counties of Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester. Not all counties listed are currently represented.

New York's first newspaper, the New York Gazette (1726-1744), is available for free online at Old Fulton NY Post Cards. The site also includes hundreds of nineteenth- and twentieth-century New York newspapers (17,000,000+ images).

Genealogy Bank ($) offers the following colonial New York newspapers on their website:

In addition, Genealogy Bank contains numerous digitized nineteenth- and twentieth-century New York newspapers itemized at their site.

New York Online Historical Newspapers provides a comprehensive listing by county and publication dates.

Indexes
Indexes to and transcripts of newspaper obituaries and marriages are:


 * Bowman, Fred Q. 10,000 Vital Records of Central New York, 1813–1850. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1986. (Family History Library .)
 * Bowman, Fred Q. 10,000 Vital Records of Western New York, 1809–1850. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1985. (Family History Library book .)
 * Bowman, Fred Q. 10,000 Vital Records of Eastern New York, 1777–1834. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1987. (Family History Library book .) This is continued by 1,100 Vital Records of Northeastern New York, 1835–1850. The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 118 and 119 (July 1987–July 1988).
 * Bowman, Fred Q. 8,000 More Vital Records of Eastern New York State, 1804–1850. Rhinebeck, New York: Knshp, 1991. (Family History Library book .)
 * Gavit, Joseph. American Deaths and Marriages, 1784–1829. Albany, New York: New York State Library, 1977. (Family History Library .) The collection has 40,000 entries alphabetical by surname of husbands and wives from sixty-five newspapers. An index to people other than the brides and grooms was compiled by Kenneth Scott as Joseph Gavit's American Deaths and Marriages, 1784–1829: Index to Non-Principals (New Orleans, Louisiana: Polyanthos, Incorporated, 1976; Family History Library book ).
 * Moorhouse, B-Ann. Notices of Irish-Born Persons in New York City Newspapers.  Article covers death, original Parish and County where deceased person was born in Ireland, relationships, and place of burial. Years covered 1819-1891.  Article in The Irish Ancestor. Vol. V&gt; no.1. 1973, Pages 24-27. Family History Ref. 941.5 B2i V5-6.
 * Scott, Kenneth. Genealogical Data From Colonial New York Newspapers: A Consolidation From the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1977. (Family History Library book .) Indexes newspapers from 1726–1783.
 * Scott, Kenneth. Genealogical Data from the New York Post-Boy 1743–1773. Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1980. (Family History Library book .)

The Family History Library has few New York newspapers other than The New York Times, 1857–1912 (Family History Library films 412 reels). Indexes to the Times include:


 * Falk, Byron A., Jr., and Valerie R. Falk. Personal Name Index to "The New York Times Index, 1851–1979." 22 Volumes. Succasunna, New Jersey: Roxbury Data Interface, 1976 and 1975–1989 1993 Supplement. 29 Volumes. Verdi, Nevada: Roxbury Data Interface, 1991. (Family History Library .) This indexes The New York Times Index, which is not at the Family History Library but is at many public and university libraries.
 * The New York Times Obituaries Index. Two Volumes. New York, New York: The Times, 1970. (Family History Library .) This index covers 1858–1978.

In addition to these published books, the Family History Library has clippings and other collections of genealogical extracts from newspapers for Dutchess, Madison, Rensselaer, Schenectady, and other counties.

Web Sites

 * Chronicling America
 * News Link
 * http://www.usnpl.com/nynews.php
 * http://www.50states.com/news/newyork.htm
 * Brooklyn Genealogy
 * Brooklyn Eagle News
 * http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/nysnp/
 * news.nnyln.net/ Site covers 37 newspapers in various Northern New York counties. By "rolling over" the county on the map, a list of the newspapers for that county is displayed and a click on the newspaper will display the site for that newspaper.
 * Old Fulton NY Postcards Searches over 11 million newspapers in Central, Upstate and Western New York with one search.
 * http://newyork-genealogy.com/New-York-Newspapers.cfm
 * Suffolk Historic Newspapers

Newspaper Bibliographies

 * U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present - national directory from the Library of Congress containing over 140,000 newspaper titles. The directory provides a list of libraries from around the country that have the newspapers in their collections.
 * Clarence S. Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society, c1947, c1975),
 * Library of Congress, Catalog Publication Division, Newspapers in Microform: United States: 1948-1983, Washington, District of Columbia : Library of Congress, 1984) – gives location of microfilm copies for use of inter-library loan.