Vermont Newspapers

Newspapers publish marriage, divorce, death, and funeral notices, and obituaries. Notices include names, dates, and places. Marriage and death notices may contain maiden names and names of parents and other living relatives.

Newspapers also publish articles of local interest that often cover religious and social events in the community and include the names of people involved. Some newspapers serve several communities and devote columns to the everyday happenings in the area. Newspapers also include legal notices, estate sales, and advertising for local businesses.

Some cities in Vermont began publishing newspapers in the 1780s and 1790s. The Vermont Department of Libraries has a large collection of newspapers.

Inventory on the Internet
Over 900 Vermont newspapers are cataloged in:

McShane, Daniel. Vermont Newspaper Project [database on-line]. N.p.: Vermont Newspaper Project, 23 August 1999 [cited 24 August 1999]. Available at http://vtnp.uvm.edu/

This site briefly lists newspaper title, town, life span, and repositories so that researchers can contact repositories for further details and obtain copies through interlibrary loan.

Published Index and Guide
The Family History Library has not acquired copies of Vermont newspapers. There is an online index to the Rutland Herald and the Burlington Free Press at http://bfprhdindex.uvm.edu/.The latter is also available in book form:

Historical Records Survey (Vermont). Index to the Burlington Free Press in the Billings Library, University of Vermont. 6 vols. Montpelier, Vermont: Historical Records Survey, 1940–41. (FHL book 974.317 B32h; on two FHL films beginning with 844896, item3.) This index covers the years 1848–1865 and indexes news items, advertisements, and vital records. Copies of this newspaper are available through the Vermont Department of Libraries and the University of Vermont.

A guide to help locate indexes to newspapers is:

New England Library Association. Bibliography Committee. A Guide to Newspaper Indexes in New England. Holden, Massachusetts: New England Library Association, 1978. (FHL book 974 B32n; fiche 6051391.) The newspapers are listed by state, town, and then by the name of the newspaper. It includes the dates the indexes cover, the frequency of the newspapers, what type of items in the newspaper are indexed, and the name and address of the library where the indexes are located.

See the “Newspapers” and “Obituaries” sections of the United States Research Outline (30972) for help in locating other newspapers published in Vermont.

Many periodicals publish information from newspapers. These are referenced in the “Places” section of the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) described in the “Periodicals” section of this outline.

More resources regarding local newspapers for Vermont can be found in the Family History Library Catalog by using a Place Search under:

VERMONT- NEWSPAPERS

VERMONT, [COUNTY], [TOWN]- NEWSPAPERS

Web Sites

 * http://www.50states.com/news/vermont.htm
 * http://www.newslink.org/vtnews.html