Iowa Newspapers

Online Resources

 * Iowa Online Historical Newspapers at Google
 * Iowa Newspapers at Ancestry ($)
 * World War II Iowa Press Clippings, images.
 * Newspaper Archive Iowa
 * Iowa Newspaper Archives (1837–1902), Genealogy Bank
 * Iowa Newspapers, 1837-2009 at MyHeritage ($)
 * Iowa Old Press
 * Iowa Newspapers
 * at FamilySearch; index and images — How to Use this Collection
 * 1800s-1999 U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-1999 at Ancestry - index ($)
 * Historical Iowa Newspapers, at Iowa City Public Library. Includes Slovan Americky (1873-1897), a Slovak-language newspaper.
 * Cedar Rapids Newspapers, at Cedar Rapids Public Library.

Newspapers publish notices of marriage, divorce, death, funerals and probate matters. Since about 1880 they may also publish birth notices. Notices include the names of the persons involved, dates, and places. Marriage and death notices may contain maiden names, names of parents, and names of other living relatives. There are also social columns that tell of local events and visiting persons. Also, they often tell about marriages and who attended them (especially for prominent families). There may be engagement announcements and notices of 25th and 50th wedding anniversaries.

Legal notices, such as the settlement of estates, appointment of guardians, filing of divorces, coroner inquests, delinquent tax lists, and other legal advertising, can be of great help, especially if a fire destroyed the records in the courthouse. Newspapers also include local and national news and advertisements for commodities and services.

History
Iowa newspapers have been published since 1836.

Resources for Iowa Newspapers
A guide to locating newspapers is: United States Newspaper Project. A Bibliography of Iowa Newspapers, 1836–1976. (Iowa City, Iowa: Iowa State Historical Department, 1979).

Libraries and Archives
The State Historical Society of Iowa at Iowa City has a vast collection of newspapers.

Newspaper Directory
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.

Digital Issues Online
NewspaperArchive.com ($) has a large collection of Iowa newspapers online. This database is sometimes free at libraries under the name AccessNewspaperArchive.

State Historical Society of Iowa Newspapers (SHSI). Some newspapers and years are here that are not on GenealogyBank or Newspapers.com. Scroll to Manuscripts, Newspapers, etc. Scroll down the page and select the desired database.

Advantage Archives at Advantage Preservation. Lists available newspapers by city with a map of Iowa. Search by town and/or nearby city. If a desired year is not covered, contact the library or source supplying the information to Advantage Archives.

Ethnic Newspapers
African American Newspapers

Iowa State Bystander. (1894-1916). Available on microfilm at State Historical Society of Iowa

The Bystander. (1916-1972. Available on microfilm at the State Historical Society of Iowa

Slovak Language Newspapers

Slovan Americky (1873-1897), a Slovak-language newspaper. Available at Historical Iowa Newspapers, at Iowa City Public Library.

FamilySearch Library
FamilySearch Library collects indexes and abstracts of newspaper records but does not have original newspapers from Iowa.

Newspapers are listed in the Locality Search of the FamilySearch Catalog:


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

Websites
Iowa Old Press internet site has transcriptions of old Iowa newspapers. The entries are arranged by county then by date.