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