The Importance of Newspapers as a Source Almost everyone has
read a newspaper of some kind at some point. Many of us read a
paper every day, and we’d be lost without them. But apart from
keeping us up to date with the news, they can also been a boon
for family historians. Why? It’s not just for the obituaries,
although those can be a wonderful resource, but also for the
stories, especially in local papers, which can include ancestors
and relatives, and can bring a greater level of understanding to
events in the area. About NewspapersNewspapers have been around
for about 300 years, published in different cities and only
later nationally. That means, the further you go back, the more
local news you’re going to find, which, for family history
purposes, is wonderful, since names are named, and events, even
fairly trivial ones, are described in detail. The obituaries are
usually of more prominent citizens, which means that the
majority of people vanished into the hereafter are not
celebrated in print. But if your