Tip: Keep Checking for New Sources of Newspapers Local to Your Ancestors

One of my genealogical ground zero areas is Fairview/Anamosa, about 25 miles outside Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  While there are times when a person who dies in Fairview has an obituary in a Cedar Rapids newspaper as well as Fairview/Anamosa, it is not a given.

As time marches on I find that some localities are making historical newspapers specific to their area available online, and for free!

It turns out I'm related to huge number of people who lived in the Fairview/Anamosa area outside Cedar Rapids.  NewspaperArchive.com has long been the best place to look for Iowa newspapers (although Newspapers.com is constantly improving), and I seem to remember that in addition to a full-run of Cedar Rapids newspapers the subscription service had Fairview/Anamosa area newspapers.  But although these newspapers are no longer available at the NewspaperArchive.com site they are now at http://jonescounty.advantage-preservation.com/:

The only flaw in this system is that it seems to go caput sometime after 6pm.  I don't know if they turn off a server somewhere??

This is not brand new information regarding this location (I blogged about this service a few years back) but the collaboration they have with Advantage Preservation was not as obvious to me before as it is now.

If you don't have people from this particular area, don't despair.  Check out The Ancestor Hunt's 2016 post, "Advantage Preservation Now Hosts 238 Free Newspaper Collections with Over 2,000 Historic Newspapers."



NOTE: Here is my small collection of newspaper links that I regularly consult.

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