ProQuest Historical Newspapers
RootsTech 2013
William J. Forsyth, PMP
ProQuest LLC
ProQuest Historical Newspapers™ is the definitive newspaper digital archive offering full-text and
full-image articles for significant newspapers dating back to the 18th Century. The ProQuest Historical
Newspapers program also includes the American Jewish Newspapers Collection, Black Newspapers
Collection, International Newspapers Collection, and the Civil War Era Collection.
This session will give you useful facts, in-depth information, and practical tips on how to get the most
from this invaluable resource for genealogical research. The syllabus material will be augmented in the
classroom with actual newspaper images, additional commentary, and real-world research examples.
1. Who is ProQuest?
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The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has offices throughout the world.
ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information. Key to serious research, the
company has forged a 75-year reputation as a gateway to the world’s knowledge – from
dissertations to governmental and cultural archives to news and genealogical records, in all its
forms.
In 1938, the company began an innovative project to microfilm the earliest English books to
preserve them from the devastation of World War II. This foresight helped to build a collection
of six billion pages of information, the largest commercial archive of information in the world.
Other ProQuest web-based products designed for family and local history research include
HeritageQuest Online, Ancestry Library Edition, ProQuest African American Heritage, ProQuest
Obituaries, Digital Sanborn Maps, and Historic Map Works Library Edition.
2. What is the ProQuest Historical Newspapers Collection (HNP)?
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The ProQuest Historical Newspapers program seeks to digitize the full run of newspapers of
historical importance, including in-copyright content. This is a growing program that will
continue to add U.S. and international titles.
There are 41 titles currently available, including many of the most desirable newspapers in the
U.S. and internationally. The full collection contains more than 30 million digitized pages.
United States Newspapers
Title
The Arizona Republican
Atlanta Constitution
The Baltimore Sun
The Boston Globe
Chicago Tribune
The Christian Science Monitor
Cincinnati Enquirer
Detroit Free Press
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Years of Coverage
1890-1922
1868-1945
1837-1987*
1872-1981*
1849-1989*
1908-1999*
1841-1922
1831-1922
Hartford Courant
Indianapolis Star
Los Angeles Times
The Louisville Courier-Journal
Nashville Tennessean
The New York Times (1851-2009) with Index (1851-1993)
New York Tribune/Herald Tribune
Newsday
San Francisco Chronicle
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
International Newspapers
Title
Chinese Newspaper Collection
The Globe and Mail
The Guardian and
The Observer
The Irish Times and
Weekly Irish Times
Jerusalem Post
The Scotsman
Times of India
Toronto Star
Black Newspapers
Title
Atlanta Daily World
The Baltimore Afro-American
Cleveland Call & Post
Chicago Defender
Los Angeles Sentinel
New York Amsterdam News
The Norfolk Journal & Guide
The Philadelphia Tribune
Pittsburgh Courier
American Jewish Newspapers
Title
The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger
The American Israelite
The Jewish Advocate
Jewish Exponent
*Additional year of content is added annually.
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1764-1987*
1903-1922
1881-1989*
1830-1922
1812-1922
1851-2009*
1841-1962
1940-1984*
1865-1922
1874-1922
1889-1995*
1877-1996*
Years of Coverage
1832-1953
1844-2009*
1821-2003
1791-2003
1859-2011*
1876-1958
1932-1988
1817-1950
1838-2003*
1894-2011*
Years of Coverage
1931-2003
1893-1988
1934-1991
1910-1975
1934-2005
1922-1993
1921-2003
1912-2001
1911-2002
Years of Coverage
1857-1922
1854-2000
1905-1990
1887-1990
3. How can I access the HNP Collection?
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The HNP Collection is available only through institutions such as universities, community
colleges, and public libraries. Access is usually free to the researcher or patron. There are
thousands of institutional subscribers globally.
Libraries will generally subscribe to specific newspaper titles that meet the research needs of
their university or local community. National titles, such as the Wall Street Journal and
Christian Science Monitor, are more likely to be found at major universities and colleges.
Visit your local library’s website and look for links to “News,” “Newspapers,” “Research
Databases,” “Online Databases,” or other similar headings.
If you are researching from a remote location (such as your home), you will be required to log-on
with your student ID and password, library card number, etc.
4. Understanding the HNP Collection
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The HNP Collection has been developed with libraries in mind. Publisher archives (such as the
New York Times website) are consumer-oriented and users generally have to pay per article and
do not have access to a sophisticated search interface. Additionally, the HNP Collection includes
content not always available from the publishers’ archives, including display ads, paid
announcements, freelance content and full page images.
Digitizing the continuous run of a newspaper is important to researchers, including genealogists.
The ability to search the entire run of a newspaper not only improves the quality of your
research, it increases your chances of finding a birth or marriage announcement, obituary, or
other life event of an ancestor. While ProQuest strives to provide complete runs of newspapers,
each title is treated differently based on agreements with the original news publisher and the
scope of the collection.
ProQuest digitizes the newspapers cover-to-cover, all fully searchable. They consist of all paid
advertisements and inserts that were included on archival microfilm copies or preserved hard
copies of the newspapers. The front-page headlines, classified ads, marriage and death
announcements, comic strips, reviews, display advertising, editorials, birth notices, photographs,
and many other article types are provided.
Some titles are missing issues due to several factors. In some cases, issues were not printed
because the newspaper was on strike or in financial trouble. In other cases, issues no longer exist
on microfilm or in print. ProQuest makes every effort to find sources for missing issues to fill
gaps.
Article-level treatment with over 20 assigned article types, which helps you quickly hone in on
the exact content for which you are searching. Available article or document types include:
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Article
Banner
Birth notice
Classified ad
Comic
Display ad
Editorial
Editorial cartoon
Fire loss
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Front page article
Legal notice
Letter to editor
Lottery numbers
Marriage
Masthead
Military war news
Obituary
Other
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Photo standalone
Real estate
transaction
Review
Soldier list
Stock quote
Table of contents
Weather
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Due to the Tasini ruling, some articles and photos created by freelance authors are blocked at the
article level due to copyright restrictions. But, they can be viewed on the full-page image
because it is presented in its original format. Users trying to access blocked articles will see a
message saying “Blocked due to copyright. See full page image or microfilm.”
5. How does ProQuest digitize a newspaper?
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The HNP Collection is an image-based product with searchable ASCII working behind the
scenes.
Newspapers are scanned from the microfilm at 300 dpi resolution. The images are cleaned and
enhanced with filters and stored in TIFF format. The images go through multiple quality checks
and if an image does not meet ProQuest quality standards, it will be remanufactured when
alternative copies are identified.
Each article meets a minimum 80% optical character recognition (OCR) rate, which is especially
important for pages with multiple articles or images. Article titles, image captions, subheads,
first paragraph and by-lines are captured at a minimum 99.95% OCR rate to improve viewing
and searching capability, including hand rekeying when necessary.
Each page of each newspaper is zoned into article images to provide more detailed results and
allow for quicker delivery of content. Articles are threaded for page jumps. For example, an
article beginning on page 1 and continuing on page 4 is shown as one continuous image.
The zoning process allows users to access either full-page images or individual articles, and
focus their searches on specific article types.
Article zoning also allows for faster downloading versus full-page images.
6. The HNP LibGuide
ProQuest has developed an online, easy-to-follow library user guide or “LibGuide” to all aspects of
the HNP Collection including content, searching, and viewing results. It also includes sample
searches and tips on printing. Go to http://proquest.libguides.com and click on the Group link
titled, “News and Newspapers”.
7. Some “Mini” Case Studies – Tips and Tricks for More Successful Research
The remainder of the presentation will focus on practical examples of digital newspaper searching,
including how newspapers can enhance your family history story and provide clues to additional
records.
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Finding your ancestors
Finding your female ancestors
Finding your Jewish ancestors
Finding your African American ancestors
Finding your Civil War ancestors
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