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 New York Genealogical and Biographical Record95 (October 1964): 220-232, Journal pp. 14-28 New York Genealogical and Biographical Record96 (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). At various libraries; FHL Collection
  

• 1744-1753 New-York Evening Post, GenealogyBank.com
• 1752-1768 The New-York Mercury

• Kenneth Scott, GDCNYN, pp 29-128; New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 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, GenealogyBank.com
  

• Kenneth Scott, GDCNYN, pp. 129-243; New York Genealogical and Biographical Record vol. 99-107 (1968-1976).[serialized]
  

• 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).

• 1775+  New-York Constitutional Gazette, GenealogyBank.com

Resources for New York Newspapers

Online New York Newspaper 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

• New York Cities newspapers
  
• New York County newspapers
  
• Title list of all New York newspapers
  

Holdings in other New York locations

• New York Cities newspapers
  
• New York County newspapers
  
• Title list of all New York Newspapers
  

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.
  

New York Newspaper Bibliographies - Book form

• New York State Library, A Checklist of Newspapers in Microform in the New York State Library (Albany, New York: New York State Library, 1979); At various libraries - outdated, New York newspapers have been microfilmed, and can be borrowed through inter-library loan.
  

• Sylvia G. Faibisoff and Wendell Tripp, compilers, A Bibliography of Newspapers in Fourteen New York Counties (Cooperstown, New York: New York Historical Association, 1978); At various libraries; book 974.7 B33f - this source lists newspapers of Allegany, Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, and Yates counties.

Digital Newspaper Issues Online

New York Times

• 1851-1922; 1987-present New York TimesNew York Times website - free
  
• 1923-1986 New York Times New York Times website - ($)
  

Other New York Newspapers

• 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.
  

• 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. Not all counties listed are currently represented.
  

• Old Fulton NY Post Cards - free, includes hundreds of nineteenth- and twentieth-century New York newspapers (17,000,000+ images). How to search the Old Fulton NY Post Cards website
  

• 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.
  

• America Historical Newspapers - ($), replaces the old Readex Microcard for American newspapers from 1700 to the mid 1800s. Some libraries and genealogical societies subscribe to this website.
  

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

• Northern New York Historical Newspapers - free, consists of more than 2,279,000 pages from fifty-one newspapers from Oswego, Jefferson, Lewis, [[St. Lawrence County, New York|St. Lawrence], Franklin, Clinton, and Essex Counties.

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

• B-Ann Moorhouse, "Notices of Irish-Born Persons in New York City Newspapers," The Irish Ancestor. V, no.1. (1973): 24-27. FHL book 941.5 B2i vol. 5 - article covers death, original Parish and County where deceased person was born in Ireland, relationships, and place of burial. Years covered 1819-1891.
  
• Fred Q. Bowman, 8000 More Vital Records of Eastern New York State, 1804-1850 (Rhinebeck, New York: Kinship Books, 1991). At various libraries; FHL Book 974.7 V2bfqa.
  
• Fred Q.Bowman, 7000 Hudson-Mohawk Valley, (NY), Vital Records, 1808-1850 (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1997). At various libraries; FHL Book 974.7 V2bo.
  
• Fred Q. Bowman,10,000 Vital Records of Central New York, 1813-1850 (Baltimore, MD:Genealogical Pub. Co., 1986).Ancestry($); World Vital Records($); At various libraries;FHL Book 974.7 V2bf.
  
• Fred Q. Bowman,10,000 Vital Records of Eastern New York, 1777-1834 (Baltimore,MD: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1987). Ancestry($); World Vital Records($); At various libraries; FHL Book 974.7 V2bfq - This is continued in "1,100 Vital Records of Northeastern New York, 1835–1850," The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 118 and 119 (July 1987–July 1988).
  
• Fred Q. Bowman,10,000 Vital Records of Western New York, 1809-1850 (Baltimore,MD: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1985).Ancestry($); World Vital Records($); At various libraries; FHL Book 974.7 V2b.
  
• Joseph Gavit, American Deaths and Marriages, 1784–1829 (Albany, New York: New York State Library, 1977). FHL films 1022833–34 - has 40,000 entries alphabetical by surname of husbands and wives from sixty-five newspapers.  Additional index: Kenneth Scott, Joseph Gavit's American Deaths and Marriages, 1784–1829: Index to Non-Principals (New Orleans, Louisiana: Polyanthos, Incorporated, 1976) FHL book 974.7 B32s) - an index to people other than the brides and grooms
  
• Kenneth Scott, Genealogical Data From Colonial New York Newspapers: A Consolidation From the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1977). FHL book 974.71 D28s - indexes newspapers from 1726–1783.
  
• Kenneth Scott, Genealogical Data from the New York Post-Boy 1743–1773 (Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1980). FHL book974.71 B38s
  

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) FHL book 974.71 B3f - indexes The New York Times Index
  
• The New York Times Obituaries Index(New York, New York: The Times, 1970). FHL book 974.71 V42n - this index covers 1858–1978.
  

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

US 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); At various libraries;FHL Book 973 A3bc
• Library of Congress, Catalog Publication Division, Newspapers in Microform: United States: 1948-1983, Washington, District of Columbia : Library of Congress, 1984); At various libraries; FHL Book 011.35 N479 1984 – gives location of microfilm copies for use of inter-library loan.

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