Rhode Island Newspapers

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Newspapers provide valuable genealogical information, including obituaries, marriage announcements, biographical sketches, divorce notices, and so forth. Other personal information may be included in various sections of a newspaper. Rhode Island's first newspaper was published in 1732.

Locating Rhode Island Newspapers

 * 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


 * Rhode Island Newspapers


 * A Guide to Newspaper Indexes in New England ([Holden, Massachusetts]: New England Library Association, 1978) Digitzed version available through FamilySearch Catalog entry.


 * 1798-1799 - Weekly Companion; and the Commercial Centinel at Google News - free.


 * 1801-1841 - Rhode-Island Republican at Google News - free.

Resources for Rhode Island Newspapers

 * The Rhode Island Historical Society has copies of virtually all newspapers published in the state. They have some newspaper indexes. The Family History Library has not acquired copies of Rhode Island newspapers.


 * Marriage and death notices for 1758 to 1833 from several major Rhode Island newspapers have been published in volumes 12 to 21 of James N. Arnold, Vital Records of Rhode Island 1636-1850 Digitized version available through FamilySearch Catalog entry. There are surname indexes in most of the volumes.

Web Sites

 * The Rhode Island Historical Society
 * Rhode Island Newspapers, index