Findmypast US & World Newspapers Collection - Extra Canadian Newspapers?

I'm in the midst of putting the final touches on my "Finding Your Past With Findmypast" presentation for the upcoming British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa 25th Annual Conference being held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In doing so I've been going through the Findmypast holdings with a critical eye looking for cool and unusual items and collections.With the slides basically done I'm just writing up my "script" of talking points and was working on the newspaper section of my presentation.

I often use the Canada newspapers in the US & World Newspapers collection on Findmypast to look for my ancestors and relatives in Manitoba, specifically Winnipeg, plus a check of Alberta and Saskatchewan to see if they moved out that way. I might even check out the St. John's, Newfoundland papers. At least that is what I thought was all that was offered based on the filters.

I started playing with the search using the common surnames of "Smith" and "Jones". But I start to see newspapers from other areas of Canada.

Screen capture of Findmypast "US & World newspapers" collection filtered by Canada for Smith

A search for "Smith" using the "By Country" filter of "Canada" in the US & World newspapers collection returns articles from the Winnipeg Tribune, Victoria Daily British Colonist, and Acton Free Press (Acton, Ontario), Not shown in this screen capture of part of the first page of results are articles from the Vancouver Chinook, Milton Canadian Champion (Milton, Ontario), Agassiz Record (Agassiz, British Columbia), and Dauphin Herald (Dauphin, Manitoba).

If I look at the "By Publication" filter I see the Dauphin Herald listed but none of the others. In the "By State" filters only Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland, and Saskatchewan are listed. Ontario nor British Columbia is listed.

In looking at the search results themselves, the note at the bottom of the newspaper image states:

"Copyright: "Fair Use" allowed. NewspaperARCHIVE.com"

Could it be that NewspaperARCHIVE.com has many more Canadian newspapers than what Findmypast filters know about or is telling us? Could I have been underrating the Canadian newspaper collections provided by Findmypast?

I think the answer is a definite YES to both questions!

To see what might really be available we need to pop over to NewspaperARCHIVE.com and check out their collections. Going to the Canada section we see

Screen capture of NewspaperARCHIVE.com Canada collections by State

Looks like there are newspapers from Alberta, British Columbia, the Federal government, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.

Drilling down in the map you can find the various newspapers for the list provinces such as:

New Brunswick

• Fredericton Head Quarters (1844-1861)
• Moncton L Acadien (1918-1926)
• Saint John Morning Freeman (1860-1870)

Newfoundland

• Corner Brook Western Star (1900-1952)
• St. John's (12 publications)
• Saint Johns (38 publications)¹

Nova Scotia

• Halifax British Colonist (1848-1860)
• Halifax Citizen (1863-1873)
• Halifax Gazette (1753-1778)
• Halifax Sun And Advertizer (1862-1867)

Ontario

• Durham Chronical And Grey County Advertiser (1867-1969)
• Durham Grey Review (1878-1897)
• Durham Review (1897-1940)
• Kingston
• Kingston British Whig (1834-1895)
• Kingston Chronicle (1819-1832)
• Kingston Chronicle And Gazette (1835-1847)
• Kingston Daily British Whig (1850-1901)
• Kingston Daily News (1856-1887)
• Kingston Gazette (1810-1818)
• Kingston Upper Canada Herald (1819-1847)
• Kingston Weekly British Whig (1858-1885)
• Lindsay
• Lindsay Canadian Post (1893-1898)
• Lindsay Expositor (1869-1870)
• Lindsay Post (1907-1914)
• Lindsay Victoria Warder (1870-1899)
• Lindsay Watchman (1888-1898)
• Lindsay Watchman Warder (1899-1915)
• Lindsay Weekly Free Press (1908-1909)
• Lindsay Weekly Post (1899-1907)
• Millbrook And Omemee Mirror (1905-1909)
• Millbrook Reporter (1893-1962)
• Orillia Expositor (1872-1873)

This is only a selection of what is actually offered on NewspaperARCHIVE and subsequently, due to their partnership, probably also in the Findmypast newspaper collection for Canada.

For some of the newspapers the date ranges held are only for a few years but you never know what you will find.

In my case I had an open "to do" item to locate the death notice or obituary for Ann (nee McDonald) McKinnon, my 3rd great-grandmother, in the Victoria Warder from Lindsay, Ontario. I knew the date the obituary was printed in the newspaper and even had a transcription but I always want to see the original source. When I last looked a few years ago, Library and Archives Canada didn't have the year I wanted for that newspaper. Supposedly Trent University had a microfilmed copy of the issue the obituary was in but getting there is a challenge for me since I don't own a car. However, it seems that NewspaperARCHIVE.com does have the newspaper and the right years. This meant I could probably find it via Findmypast.com. With a bit of patience I was able to pull up her obituary on Findmypast.

"Obit.-Ann McKinnon," The Victoria Warder, 20 Oct 1893, p. 5, col. 3; digital images, Findmypast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 16 Sep 2019), US & World newspapers - Canada.

One more to do item crossed off my list! Only 749 to go as I write this post. YIKES!

Hopefully Findmypast will update their search filters on the US & World Newspapers collection search page to more closely align with what NewspaperARCHIVE has in their collection.

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1. Yes, I know that "Saint John's" and "St. John's" Newfoundland should be the same place but the computer doesn't.