New Ancestry.com Database: Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage, & Death Announcements, 1850-2003

Ancestry has just posted a new database that indexes birth, marriage, and death announcements found in newspapers from seven major cities. Below is a list of the newspapers and the years of coverage:

  • The New York Times (1851-2003)
  • The Los Angeles Times (1881-1985)
  • The Boston Globe (1872-1923)
  • The Chicago Defender (Big Weekend and National Editions) (1921-1975)
  • The Chicago Tribune (1850-1985)
  • The Hartford Courant (1791-1942)
  • The Washington Post (1877-1990)
  • The Atlanta Constitution (1869-1929)

Each index entry also contains a link to an image of the newspaper clipping that can be printed or saved to your Member Tree online at Ancestry.com.

The images can also be browsed by clicking on the Births, Marriages, or Deaths link at the bottom of the page, and then selecting a newspaper and year.

For more information or to search this database, go to the main database page.

14 thoughts on “New Ancestry.com Database: Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage, & Death Announcements, 1850-2003

  1. In all the entries I’ve tried so far, it doesn’t highlight the entry. That means it takes incredible time to find what one is looking for in some cases. Is it possible that this feature might be coming soon?

  2. I don’t find this website working at all. No matter what surname I enter, for the L.A. Times, I get the same notice of a 6 year old girl that died at Ft.Bragg & her name is not even close to the name I entered. What gives?

  3. I have been unable to find dozens of ancestors and public figures who I know died in Chicago during the covered period. I did find two, and when I tried to access the image, ig get an error message.

  4. Site is very interesting but needs more work. Only obituaries shows up the most. Very few marriages and hardly any births especially for the Boston Globe. Did find one Great Grandfather’s death notice in the Globe, but the rest of the family’s were missing and they all died in the same place.

  5. I am finding that there is very little information available for places such as Bureau county illinois. it is as if the East is the only place that their has been any civilization! The prices that you charge are extremely costly for the amount of information you have available from many states. Why don’t you try to be a little fairer in your distribution of information?

  6. If this is supposed to be the result of the agreement between ProQuest and Ancestry, I liked ProQuest’s way better. ProQuest always listed the paper and the date of publication along with the item. No, they did not highlight the name, but they were usually pretty easy to find.

    Ancestry has always done a poor job, in my opinion, of including the source along with the image (you have to make a separate notation of the source–even census.

  7. Are you also planning to do Philidelpha newspapers? You are also going to keep the other newspapers listed I hope. Please highlight the names if you can. It will make it easier for us to read

  8. no point in my listing my complaints-they`ve been pretty much covered-now all i need are the answers to the whys & wherefors. EVELYN

  9. None of the 5 names I used showed an entry for Los Angeles Times. How do I change the 3 star limit from this page?
    Where are the answers to these comments?

  10. I would like to see some information from the many New Orleans, LA newspapers. There is so much information available here. New Orleans is such an important city. Most new sites are from the North or West. What about the Southern ports.

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