Traveling Ancestors: Using Newspapers to Follow Your Relatives

Historic newspapers frequently discussed the comings and goings of their citizens and visitors. Discover newspaper keyword combinations that can help you track your ancestors' movements.

Use these search terms to quickly research in online historical newspapers to find genealogy gold in old newspapers. Each surname is linked to a Newspapers.com article featuring that surname combination.

To learn more about these newspaper research keywords, watch this video.

Viewers have asked, "Do these keyword combinations would work in African American newspapers?"

If the newspaper is digitized and searchable, YES, you can use these keyword combinations in African American newspapers.

The trick is to not necessarily limit which paper your research by location.

While the following article discusses Mrs. Minnie Stewart's arrival in Harrisburg, Virginia from Prospect, Virginia, the newspaper was The Pittsburgh Courier from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Harrisburg and Pittsburgh are 250 miles apart!

↪️ Are you looking for more genealogy resources?

Grab your copy of this FREE Genealogy Research Guide:

If you want to continue learning about how to use newspapers in your genealogy research, read or watch the following:

For more about newspaper keyword combinations, check out these articles: