New York Newspapers

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Introduction and 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. Below is a list of all known colonial newspapers (Pre-1775). Websites or any known transcriptions were included. All of these newspapers can be obtained on microfilm through inter-library loan from the New York State Library.

Albany

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

New York City

  • Grace Kneale. “Early Death Notices from Zenger’s New York Journal," New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 47-49 (1916-1918). [serialized] - At various libraries; FS Library Book 974.7 B2n
  • 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). - At various libraries (WorldCat); FS Catalog book 974.71 D28s [Info about New York Gazette[pp. 1-13] compiled from New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 95 (October 1964): 220-232; Info about New York Weekly Journal [pp. 14-28] compiled from New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 96 (January 1965): 1-15. - At various libraries; FS Library Book 974.7 B2n
  • 1743-1773 Parker’s New-York Gazette or, The Weekly Post-Boy
  • 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
  • 1759-1775 The New-York Gazette - GenealogyBank.com
  • 1762 The American Chronicle
  • 1763 The New-York Pacquet
  • 1768-1775 The New-York Gazette and the Weekly Mercury - GenealogyBank.com
  • 1769-1770 New-York Chronicle - GenealogyBank.com
  • 1773-1775 Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer; or the Connecticut, Hudson’s River, New Jersey, and Quebec Weekly Advertiser - 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). - At various libraries

Resources for New York Newspapers

Digital Newspaper Issues Online

Wikipedia has more about this subject: List of online newspaper archives

New York Times

New York Historical Newspapers

  • America Historical Newspapers($), replaces the old Readex Microcard for American newspapers from 1700 to the mid 1800s. Nearly 400 newspapers have been imaged, with more in progress. Some libraries and genealogical societies subscribe to this website.
  • America’s Newspapers($), 76 newspapers have been imaged, with more in progress. Has a fully searchable online database.
  • Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online – free, images from 1842 to 1901.
  • Brooklyn Genealogy – free, contains links to images and indexes from other Brooklyn, Long Island, and New York City newspapers.
  • Chronicling America – free, contains images of ten New York City newspapers from 1841 to 1931, coverage per newspaper varies. Also contains listings of locations where New York newspapers are on microform and can be obtained through interlibrary loan.
  • Genealogy Bank($), images of “historical” articles from 46 New York State newspapers from 1733 – 1998, and of obituaries from 136 New York State newspapers from 1986 to the present. Some libraries subscribe to this website.
  • Hudson River Valley Heritage (HRVH) Historical Newspapers – free, will eventually include major newspapers from the counties of Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester from 1831-2001. Not all counties listed are currently represented.
  • Infotrac($), contains digital images of 29 19th Century New York Newspapers, mostly from New York City, one from Rochester. Some libraries subscribe to this website.
  • Nassau County Libraries Historic Newspaper Collections – free, images of 9 Nassau and Queens County newspapers from the late 19th and 20th centuries. Coverage varies.
  • New York Newspapers - New York Genealogy – free and ($), contains links to websites for newspapers from 54 of 57 of New York State’s counties. The links may be to commercial websites.
  • New York Online Historical Newspapers – free, provides a comprehensive listing by county and publication dates.
  • NewspaperArchive.com($), has over 4 million pages of New York newspapers (mostly Syracuse) online. Some libraries subscribe to this website under the name Access NewspaperArchive.
  • Newspapers.com has full text newspapers from multiple cities in New York State ($)
  • NYS Historic Newspapers The NYS Historic Newspapers project provides free online access to a wide range of newspapers chosen to reflect New York's unique history. To search the entire collections, use the Search Tab. Or, click on a county to search or browse geographically.
  • Old Fulton NY Post Cards – free, includes hundreds of 19th and 20th century New York newspapers (17,000,000+ images) in Central, Upstate and Western New York. Collection is continuiously growing. How to search the Old Fulton NY Post Cards website
  • Suffolk Historic Newspapers – free, images of twelve Suffolk County newspapers from with coverage from 1822 to the present (coverage varies), also contains links to six other New York State newspaper websites

New York Current Newspapers

  • 50States.com – free, links to current newspaper websites and online copies contains links to over 100 New York State newspapers. There is no site wide search engine, clicking on the newspaper’s link will connect to the most recent edition of the newspaper.
  • News Link – contains images and OCR articles from 2011 and 2012 from daily newspapers in 45 cities, from business newspapers in 7 cities, from non-daily newspapers in 47 cities, and from various types of newspapers – alternative, “specialty,” and campus in various cities. There is site wide search engine, but it is also possible to browse each paper on the site. Clicking on the newspaper’s link will connect to the most recent edition of the newspaper.
  • USNPL – free, links to current newspapers websites and online copiescontains links to over 100 New York State newspapers. There is no site wide search engine, clicking on the newspaper’s link will connect to the most recent edition of the newspaper. Also contains links the “archives” (coverage varies) of nearly 100 New York State newspapers

Newspaper Indexes

Newspaper Indexes Online

In addition to newspapers that are imaged online, there are also newspaper indexes and abstracts. USGENWEB for New York has many links to newspaper indexes on the individual county pages.

They are sometimes found under the category “Vital Records” instead of “Newspapers” or “Obituaries.” These indexes usually indicate at least the event (death, marriage, or genealogically significant mention), the date of the event, and the date of the newspaper. Since they are indexes, they do not link to images.

Individual city and county library websites may also have newspaper indexes. For example, the Rochester (NY) Public Library has posted its “Rochester Newspaper Index” covering the years 1818 to 1897 on its website.

Originally a W.P.A. Project, the index is to personal names and covers more than births, deaths, and marriages. The website has a form that can be sent to order copies of the original articles in which the name was mentioned.

Newspaper Indexes in Book Form

New York Times Book Indexes

  • Byron A. Falk, Jr., and Valerie R. Falk, Personal Name Index to "The New York Times Index, 1851–1979" (Succasunna, New Jersey: Roxbury Data Interface, 1976 and 1975–1989 1993) FS Catalog book 974.71 B3f - indexes The New York Times Index
  • The New York Times Obituaries Index(New York, New York: The Times, 1970). FS Catalog book 974.71 V42n - this index covers 1858–1978.

Published Newspaper Notices of Marriages and Deaths

For New York City's five boroughs and some other counties, many newspaper notices of births, marriages, and deaths have been published. See New York Newspapers for a partial list. In the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog, these notices are listed under:

NEW YORK, [COUNTY], [TOWN] - NEWSPAPERS

NEW YORK, [COUNTY], [TOWN] - OBITUARIES

Check also under the state and county levels.

You will also find that many church marriage records have been published or have been microfilmed for the five boroughs. You can look for these in the FamilySearch Catalog Place Search under:

NEW YORK, [COUNTY], [TOWN] - CHURCH RECORDS

Examples include:

  • New York City Methodist Marriages, 1785–1893 [1]contains a groom index and a bride index, each of which has about 41,000 names.
  • 1801 - Stifel, Carolyn G. "Deaths from The Lady's Magazine and Musical Repository, New York, 1801," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 1801: Vol. 133, No. 4 (Oct. 2002):279-285; 1801: Vol. 139, No. 4 (Oct. 2008):275-280. Digital version at New York Family History ($); FS Library Book 974.7 B2n v. 133, 139.
  • 1801-1803 - Stifel, Carolyn G. "Marriages from The Ladies' Monitor and The Weekly Visitor or Ladies' Miscellany, New York City, 1801-1803," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 140, No. 1 (Jan. 2009):55-62. Digital version at New York Family History ($); FS Library Book 974.7 B2n v. 140.
  • 1802-1811 - Stifel, Carolyn G. "Deaths and Marriages from The Weekly Visitor Or, Ladies' Miscellany, New York," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 134, No. 2 (Apr. 2003):136-147; Vol. 134, No. 3 (Jul. 2003):198-206; Vol. 134, No. 4 (Oct. 2003):271-278; Vol. 135, No. 1 (Jan. 2004):56-67; Vol. 135, No. 2 (Apr. 2004):136-145; Vol. 135, No. 3 (Jul. 2004):212-219; Vol. 135, No. 4 (Oct. 2004):303-307; Vol. 136, No. 1 (Jan. 2005):30-32; Vol. 136, No. 2 (Apr. 2005):110-118; Vol. 136, No. 3 (Jul. 2005):215-221; Vol. 136, No. 4 (Oct. 2005):296-302; Vol. 140, No. 2 (Apr. 2009):127-130; Vol. 140, No. 3 (Jul. 2009):230-238; Vol. 140, No. 4 (Oct. 2009):295-307; Vol. 141, No. 1 (Jan. 2010):72-79. Digital version at New York Family History ($); FS Library Book 974.7 B2n v. 134-136, 140.


New York Newspaper Bibliographies

Online Bibliographies

New York State Library
The New York State Newspaper Project catalog and microfilmed any known New York newspaper. Copies of the microfilms are at the New York State Library and can be accessed onsite and through inter-library loan.

New York State Library holdings
Holdings in other New York locations

Library of Congress

  • U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present - national directory of over 140,000 newspaper titles. Includes list of libraries from around the country that have the newspapers in their collections.

Book Bibliographies

US Newspaper Bibliographies

References

  1. Fisher, William Scott, compiler. New York City Methodist Marriages, 1785–1893. Camden, Maine: Picton Press, 1994. (FS Catalog Collection book 974.71 K2fn vols. 1–2.)