This is the first time that people can access these old newspapers without microfilm or online newspapers by subscription. This is a gift from our organizations to this community.

It’s truly amazing what you can find. I’ve searched some personal family history/genealogy items and information for work. It’s helpful that there are different ways to narrow a search, such as choosing specific newspapers or choosing a particular decade. The matches by decade can be interesting because you can see the time frame where your search item has the most “hits.” So many times we’ve tried to research something, and it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack unless you had a date to go by. This makes research so much easier and more productive. I have the site bookmarked on my computer!

We have been working towards this historic archive since the technology was introduced many years ago. It has been a long-time vision to provide online access to our microfilmed newspaper collection. This project aligns with the Board of Trustee’s Strategic Plan which focuses on five areas, one of which is Discover Your Roots: Genealogy and Local History.

While it was great that patrons could come in and search the microfilm in house, it wasn’t searchable in a real efficient way, we now have an online searchable index of every paper since 1895.