Pennsylvania Newspapers

United States U.S. Newspapers  Pennsylvania  Newspapers

Newspapers are an important source for vital records, etc., during the period before Pennsylvania began keeping civil vital records.

History
Pennsylvania's first newspaper was the American Weekly Mercury published in Philadelphia in 1719. Ben Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette began in 1728.

Pennsylvania presses published German-language newspapers as early as the eighteenth century:


 * Stoudt, John Joseph, The German Press in Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Jan. 1935):76-90. For free online access, see WeRelate.
 * Reading Adler, Reading Eagle, 28 May 1868; "About Der Readinger Adler (Reading, Pa.)," Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.

Inventory

 * The U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present is a national directory from the Library of Congress of over 140,000 newspaper titles. The directory provides a list of libraries from around the country that have the newspapers in their collections


 * Ancestor Hunt Pennsylvania Newspaper Links


 * 50 States.com Pennsylvania Newspapers


 * Rauco, Louis F.; State Library of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Newspapers and Selected Out-of-State Newspapers (S.I.:s.n., 1984]  Includes list of newspapers held by the State Library of Pennsylvania.


 * Salisbury, Ruth Salisbury, Pennsylvania Newspapers, a Bibliography and Union List (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Library Association, 1969. . A listing of all newspapers ever known to have been published, with locations.


 * Pennsylvania Historical Survey, Division of Community Service Programs, Work Projects Administration, A Checklist of Pennsylvania Newspapers, Philadelphia County (Harrisburg, Pa.; Pennsylvania Historical Commission, 1944) An inventory for Philadelphia County.

Libraries and Archives
The State Library of Pennsylvania has the largest newspaper collection. An inventory of these is Louis F. Rauco, Pennsylvania Newspapers and Selected Out-of-State Newspapers ([S. l.: s. n.], 1984.

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has a major collection, especially of Philadelphia newspapers (1790-present).

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has a large collection, especially of Pittsburgh newspapers. It also has a card index to marriages and deaths listed in the newspapers in their collection.

Digital Issues Online

 * Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project, four publications cover 1895-2010, free.
 * Penn State University Libraries digital collections Pennsylvania Civil War Era Newspaper Collection.
 * Pennsylvania digitized newspapers on:Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers.
 * NewspaperArchive.com ($) has a large collection of Pennsylvania newspapers online. This database is sometimes free at libraries under the name Access NewspaperArchive.
 * First several years of The American Weekly Mercury is available for free online (1719-1723).
 * Accessible Archives ($) has The Pennsylvania Gazette (1728-1800).
 * Extra! Extra! Read All About It! FREE Historic Newspapers Online: Links to free online collections of historic newspapers published in Pennsylvania.
 * 1792-1904 - General Advertiser (Philadelphia, Pa.) is available online at Google News - free.

Family History Library

 * Excerpts of genealogical interest abstracted from Pennsylvania newspapers : in the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 198-?)


 * Presbyterian Historical Society (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Presbyterian Newspaper, v. 49, 1879 (SLC, Utah, 1966)


 * Miller, Daniel, Early German Newspapers


 * Manning, Barbara, Genealogical Abstracts from Newspapers of the German Reformed Church, 1830-1839 (Bowie, Maryland : Heritage Books, 1992) ;


 * Manning, Barbara, Genealogical Abstracts from Newspapers of the German Reformed Church, 1840-1843 (Bowie, Maryland : Heritage Books, 1995) ;


 * Clippings From the Pennsylvania Dutchman, 1949-Apr. 1953


 * Wright, Frederick Edward; Martha Reamy, Carlisle gazette and the western repository of knowledge; Pennsylvania Herald and York General Advertiser, Abstracts of south central Pennsylvania newspapers : items from the Carlisle Gazette and the York Advertiser pertaining to the lives of persons living in south central Pennsylvania; 


 * Rice, Phillip A., Jean A. Dellock, Schuylkill Roots, researchers, Circuit and Circuit Riders (Apollo, Pennsylvania : Closson Press, c1996)


 * Graeff, Arthur, Larry M. Neff, Selections from Arthur Graeff's Scholla (Breinigsville, Pennsylvania:Pennsylania German Society, c. 1971)

To access newspaper resources available through the FamilySearch Catalog, use the Place-name Search for:


 * PENNSYLVANIA - NEWSPAPERS
 * PENNSYLVANIA, [COUNTY] - NEWSPAPERS
 * PENNSYLVANIA, [COUNTY], [TOWN] - NEWSPAPERS

Obituaries

 * Hildeburn, Charles R. "An Index to the Obituary Notices published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, from 1728-1791," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 10 (1886):334-349. For free online access, see WeRelate.


 * Smith, Gary V., Corry Weekly Herald (Corry, Pennsylvania), Index to 3000 death notices covering northwestern Pennsylvania and southwestern New York extracted from the Corry Weekly Herald (Corry, Pennsylvania) (Montgomery, Alabama :G.V. Smith, c1992)


 * Quaker Necrology (Boston, Massachusetts:G.K. Hall, 1961) This two-volume set represents some 59,000 death notices indexed on cards at Haverford College Library from 1922-1960. The entries were originally recorded in four periodicals: Friends' Weekly Intelligencer, The Friends' Review. The American Friend, and The Friends Review.

To access obituary resources available through the FamilySearch Catalog, use the Place-name Search for:


 * PENNSYLVANIA - OBITUARIES
 * PENNSYLVANIA, [COUNTY] - OBITUARIES
 * PENNSYLVANIA, [COUNTY], [TOWN] - OBITUARIES

Web Sites

 * Access Pennsylvania Digital Repository managed for the Office of Commonwealth Librarieswww.accesspadigital.org/
 * USNPL:Pennsylvania - This site provides links to Pennsylvania historical newspapers and current newspaper websites.
 * Chronicling America
 * Newspaper Archives ($)
 * Genealogy Bank ($)