Post rootstech questions and answers

I recently accomplished one of my genealogy goals by presenting at rootstech 2020. My wife and I did a presentation together called Discover Your Family with Interviews and Sources. Here is a link to the recording: https://www.rootstech.org/video/discover-your-family-with-interviews-and-sources.

I think the camera adds 150 lbs

My wife and her business partner handed out reference cards during the presentation for people to request information and ask questions. I thought I would share some of the questions and answers I received from a woman named Becky.

Q: How do you go about researching newspapers?

A: I hate to say but it depends. If I cannot find vital records for a person I then look in newspapers. If I have a pretty complete picture of a person and I know where and when they lived then I check the newspapers for additional information. This week I am trying to find information about a Japanese family that immigrated to Ogden, Utah. I can find obituary and wedding information for them but the husband spent time in a Japanese internment camp in Montana during World War II. Some of the Camps had newspapers. I have been trying to find some information about the camps that may help to add to his story.

Q: Do you have a subscription?

A: Yes but you don’t always need one. I have a subscription to newspapers.com. The biggest reason is because my hometown newspaper, The Ogden Standard-Examiner, is digitized and indexed there. There are thousands of free online newspapers. I mentioned the Ancestor Hunt during my presentation. https://www.theancestorhunt.com/newspaper-research-links.html I use this to narrow down my search. The FamilySearch Wiki can also help you locate newspapers for the area you are researching. I did a week long trial subscription to genealogybank but the newspapers there did not seem to provide results I was interested in so I did not continue the subscription.

Q: What Website do you recommend?

A: I assume you mean for newspapers, the two I mentioned above are my go to websites. I believe that Ancestor Hunt breaks down he different collections to location. But you can search free collections of newspapers at

• Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/newspapers/ - 7642 Newspapers
• Chronicling America: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/ - 3127 Newspapers
• Elephind.com: https://elephind.com/ - 4209 newspapers
• Google Newspapers: https://news.google.com/newspapers - A lot of newspapers
• Utah digital newspapers: https://digitalnewspapers.org/ - 200 newspapers

Q: Do you search by location of just a general google search?

A: Yes, I do both. It depends on what I am searching. I think you should have a research question in mind before you start searching. Sometimes a new collection will come online and I will just search in it for my family names but generally I have a specific reason for searching.