Congrats to the 2025 #DigMichNews Grant Winners ... 2023 & 2024 Too!

Originally posted Friday, March 21, 2025, at 11:54 a.m. Edited to include more information on St. Clair County's newspaper plans.

Congratulations to the 2025 Digital Michigan Newspaper Grant winners! 

Possibly as early as late this year, these organizations' chosen newspapers should begin appearing in Central Michigan University's Clarke Historical Library's Digital Michigan Newspapers site. This year's winners who will share the grant include: Bessemer, Eastpointe, Elk Rapids, Fennville, Pentwater, the Polish Institute of Culture and Research (Orchard Lake), and the St. Clair County Library System.

We have learned that St. Clair is planning to have the St Clair Republican from the years 1865-1871, 1877-1878, 1890-1893 and 1919-1922 digitized.

So, if you are interested in these locations find your patience and keep it at hand while we wait for the fruits of this grant.

In writing this post, we realized we had not mentioned on this blog the prior winners of the 2024 and 2023 grants since Mount Clemens won the grant in 2022 along with East Lansing. So congratulations to: Bellaire and Lansing (Capital Area) for their win in 2023; and Ishpeming, Midland, Lapeer, Zeeland, Dewitt and Alma for their win in 2024.

These digitized newspapers are every word OCRd (Optical Character Recognition) documents. Meaning it was done via a computer program. Digitizing makes these newspapers accessible to you where ever you are around the world and OCRing makes finding and pulling information in these historical galleys so much easier.

We would like to point out a few things. See our prior posts on the Digital Michigan Newspapers Grant for tips on how to better use the website when searching. Use the label #DigMichNews to find our prior posts.

Also, note that there are two lists of newspapers on the website.

The first is labeled Digital Michigan Newspaper Portal. You can clearly identify it because is has a golden map of Michigan followed below by a list of the Michigan counties and a list of newspapers under each county. This newspaper list is ... "from a variety of sources. Among these links are papers held by the Clarke Historical Library and also Michigan newspapers found in Chronicling America, a database maintained by the Library of Congress."

This is what is listed for Lapeer county on this list. This list is not up-to-date. It does not include what was digitized for last year's win.

The second list can be found from the gold menu bar at the top of the Digital Michigan Newspaper search.

Just select Counties from the gold menu bar. And then select the county you want to view.

 

Here is where you can see what was digitized for Lapeer's win. This capture also happens to show what was digitized for Midland and of course Macomb County. The staff at Mount Clemens Public Library has continued having additional newspapers and/or years digitized. So this list shows what is currently included and if you compare this second list to the first list for Macomb County you can see much has been added.

Have fun searching!

See you at our favorite library!
LE

MCGG Let's Talk...Genealogy Meets this Wednesday, October 9, at 6:30 p.m.

MCGG Let's Talk...Genealogy discussion group meets in-person (hybrid) this Wednesday, October 9, 2024, at 6:30 p.m. in the Local History & Genealogy Room of the Mount Clemens Public Library. Our topic is ... Exploring the Digital Michigan Newspaper Portal on Clarke Historical Library's Website.

Let’s share our tips and ask our questions regarding using this site, especially to explore our digitized Macomb County newspapers.

Our plan is that our meetings will be hybrid meaning the meeting will be in-person with a virtual Zoom option. The Zoom meeting link (or registration link) will now be found on our Southeast Michigan Genealogy Events Calendar and our Facebook page. The link will usually be added the night before or morning of the meeting. Members will receive a reminder email with the Zoom invite or a reminder that registration is required for a meeting.

New attendees are always welcome.

See you at our favorite library!
LE

MCGG Releases its October Meeting Topics -- Join Us on Oct. 4 & Oct. 9!

The Macomb County Genealogy Group releases its October 2024 meeting topics. Please note that we have released our full 2024 Fall Season schedule.

MCGG Friday group meets in-person (hybrid)
Friday, October 4, 2024, at 1 p.m.
in the Auditorium B/C of the Mount Clemens Public Library. Our topic is ... A.I. in Your Genealogy Research Today presented by Lisa Eschenburg.

Don't worry about all the technical aspects of Artificial Intelligence, this isn't that presentation. After a brief definition and pointing out some of the various ways to directly access A.I., we will cover a variety of ways we as genealogists are already dealing with AI in our genealogical research though you may or may not have realized it. Then you will learn some things you can do with the help of A.I. 

MCGG Let's Talk...Genealogy discussion group meets in-person (hybrid) Wednesday, October 9, 2024, at 6:30 p.m.

in the Local History & Genealogy Room of the Mount Clemens Public Library. Our topic is ... Exploring the Digital Michigan Newspaper Portal on Clarke Historical Library's Website.

Let’s share our tips and ask our questions regarding using this site, especially to explore our digitized Macomb County newspapers.

Our plan is that our meetings will be hybrid meaning the meeting will be in-person with a virtual Zoom option. The Zoom meeting link (or registration link) will now be found on our Southeast Michigan Genealogy Events Calendar and our Facebook page. The link will usually be added the night before or morning of the meeting. Members will receive a reminder email with the Zoom invite or a reminder that registration is required for a meeting.

 

New attendees are always welcome.

See you at our favorite library!
LE

More Historical Mount Clemens Newspapers Available! Now thru 1936!

Good News for Macomb County, Michigan, genealogists no matter where you are located!

More Mount Clemens historical newspapers have been digitized and are online as of about last week or perhaps near the end of July 2024.

Despite the listing itself not being updated, the Mount Clemens Monitor digitized now spans from 29 Jan 1869 through 13 Nov 1936. Of course, excepting where newspaper loss exists. Previously the digitizing went through 1904.

These digitized newspapers are an every word OCRd (Optical Character Recognition) document. Meaning it was done via a computer program. Remember, the Mount Clemens Public Library has an obituary index that may help if you are having problems getting an obituary to pop-up that you know is there. You can always browse to an specific issue.

Have fun searching!

See you at our favorite library!
LE

Some Mount Clemens Daily Leader Issues are Digitized Too! See How to Find Them

Here is some additional information on using the Digital Michigan Newspapers Portal to find digitized newspapers for Mount Clemens.

Besides the Mount Clemens Monitor which we told you about yesterday, there is also at present time some issues from one year of the Mount Clemens Daily Leader. You can find this newspaper's summary page under the title, Daily Leader. And, of course the summary page for the Monitor here. Though neither newspaper appears on the website page with the map of Michigan where you can view the newspapers by county, both do appear in the Gold toolbar Titles and Counties tabs, as well as in the Search tab's Advanced options to Limit Search by Title.

 

Want to search both newspaper titles at the same time? In the Search with Advanced Filters showing, in the Limit Search by Title, first click/select Daily Leader then scroll down and control-select Mount Clemens Monitor so both titles are now highlighted. Put in your search word(s) and search both newspapers.

Our long-time MCGG friend shared with us the following method. In the Find entry field, put "Mount Clemens" in the field. Use the filter field in the left-column and select Macomb County from the County list. Now you can change the "Mount Clemens" to your preferred search word(s) such as a surname or person's name in quotes or even a street name or address or business name etc. You can also narrow your results by decades. Because the Mount Clemens newspapers are presently the only digitized newspapers for Macomb County filtering by Macomb County at this time limits the search to just the Mount Clemens newspapers -- both of them.

You can find some basic help by selecting the Help tab from the gold toolbar at the top of the website page. Get some tips on using search terms and what features you get access to if you register for a free account. And, how to use the clip feature including how to save (right-click the clipped image) the resulting jpg file to your device. Besides Save As to JPG you can download a PDF of the issue using the link above the page image.

Back in March 2022 we learned #DigMountClemens was one of two winners of the #DigMichNews Grant Contest so the earliest Mount Clemens Monitor newspaper issues would be digitized. Thank you to all who #DigMountClemens Twitter voted so Mount Clemens Public Library could be one of the winners for 2022.

So yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus ... in June. Again, have fun and good luck but remember to visit the website again at a later date. It appears not all of the newspaper issues are online yet.

See you someday soon at our favorite library!
LE

Early Mount Clemens Monitor Digitized Images Now Going Online at Digital Michigan Newspapers Portal Thanks to 2022 #DigMichNews Grant Contest Win

A long-time MCGG friend brought to our attention today that our local newspaper is starting to appear on the Digital Michigan Newspapers Portal. Back in March 2022 we learned #DigMountClemens was one of two winners of the #DigMichNews Grant Contest so the earliest Mount Clemens Monitor newspaper issues would be digitized.

 

While it does not yet appear in the By County List, we did find it by browsing by year and selecting May 1869 and selecting the May 26 issue then selecting Mount Clemens Monitor between the Home Icon and the issue date.

But let's make it easier for you, just click this link to get to the summary page for the Mount Clemens Monitor. This page tells you what years and months have issues digitized so far. Your can view this page two different ways. Click a month to see what dates have issues digitized.

While earlier liquor bonds were not found in the paper to help establish when his bar started,
it seems Charles' sometimes bending of the rules started early in his career.

 

Another route: Select search then the icon for advanced options which is a stack of long to short lines (kind of looks like a tornado or funnel.) Then in the Limit Search by Title scroll until you find Mount Clemens Monitor, select the title to highlight it. Put your search term (like a surname or business name) in the Find box. Press the enter key or select the search icon (the magnifying glass) to perform your search. 

Click the newspaper date or icon to see the page with the result. You can maximize the viewing area by selecting the square icon in the upper-right corner of the medium-yellow toolbar at the top of the newspaper page. Select it again to minimize the viewing area.

Yes, you can download the issue/page. You can also "Clip" an article but it is not very intuitive how to use the feature. You can find some basic help by selecting the Help from the gold toolbar at the top of the website page. If you want, you can register for a free account to access other features.

Have fun and good luck but come back again at a later date. Not all of the newspaper's issues are online yet.

See you someday soon at our favorite library!
LE

Mount Clemens Announced as 1 of 2 Winners of 2022 DigMichNews Grant Contest: Congratulations to All Involved

Team #DigMountClemens did it!

This morning Clarke Historical Library announced the winner of the 2022 DigMichNews Grant Contest -- that contest where you tweet as much as you can for your favorite institution/location to help it win the contest to digitize its local newspaper.

This morning Mount Clemens and East Lansing were announced the winners. The contest ran from Feb. 21 to Feb. 28.

 

Congratulations Mount Clemens Public Library and its supporters who tweet voted #DigMountClemens.

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

It's a Free Access Holiday Weekend at Newspapers.com Includes Publisher's Extra Collection thru Feb. 21, 2022

Clear up that snow tomorrow so you have all holiday weekend long to explore and search ALL of the content of Newspapers.com including the Publisher's Extra newspapers. This is a free access holiday weekend at Newspapers.com which ends February 21, 2022, at 11:59 pm MT. The link can also be found on the Facebook page for Newspaper.com website. You just need to register to obtain access.

And while you are enjoying the accessibility and ease of searching, please consider joining MCGG in Twitter tweet voting to help Mount Clemens Public Library to win the 2022 DigMichNews Grant so that the earliest newspapers of Mount Clemens can be digitized and put online for free.

Get your free Twitter account and tweet with the hashtag, #DigMountClemens with as many tweets each day of the contest as you are able to do so. The voting dates are February 21 to 28. See our previous post on this contest.

The grant contest winning newspaper usually ends up at the Digital Michigan Newspaper Portal and the Chronicling America - Michigan Collection.

See you someday soon at our favorite library!
LE

Please Join Us Feb. 21-28 to Help MCPL Win the 2022 DigMichNews Grant to Digitize Early Mt. Clemens Newspapers

Note: Originally posted Tuesday, February 15, 2022 12:08 pm Added retweet note.

Hey MCGG Members, Macomb County Genealogists and Historians!

Get your Twitter thumbs and fingers ready! We need your tweets to help the Mount Clemens Public Library win the 2022 DigMichNews Grant for digitizing the early Mount Clemens Newspapers.

Tweet Voting using #DigMountClemens takes place from February 21 to February 28. Early use and late use of the #DigMountClemens hashtag does not count towards the total votes. Consider following Mount Clemens Public Library @mtclibrary and our group @MCGGmichigan on Twitter.

Note: Retweets do not count. They must be original tweets in order to be counted.

 

We need as many people -- young, old and in-between -- to join us in tweet voting a win for our local newspaper. The World War II years are on Chronicling America and it is amazing what you can find by typing in a simple search like a surname or another subject. We know you genealogists and historians would love to be able to do this with the early Mount Clemens newspapers too.

So join us in tweet voting February 21 to 28 and let's win this contest to get this digitization started so we move on to figuring out a way to digitize the rest of our local newspaper years.

See you soon some day at our favorite library!
LE

CMU Clarke Historical Library's Digital Michigan Newspaper Portal Updated

Central Michigan University's Clarke Historical Library has updated its Digital Michigan Newspaper Portal. 

The portal has increased from 399 links to over 1,000 links. And now all 83 counties are represented. This was done by including links to modern and still in operation online newspapers.

Explore your family's past and current life in newspapers.

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

It is Time to Vote! Tweet Any Tweet with #DigUtica from Jan. 22 to Jan. 27

This is the Tweeting on Twitter voting time period. Any tweet including the hashtag #DigUtica between January 22 and January 27 adds one point to support digitizing The Utica Sentinel. in the 2018 Digital Michigan Newspaper Grant Program.

• Tweet anything with the hashtag "#DigUtica" between January 22 and January 27
• The content of the tweet does not matter, as long as the message is unique and includes the hashtag.
• Tweet as many times as you wish.

Don't have a Twitter account? It is easy to set one up. Don't have a smart phone? That is okay because you can tweet from your computer from the Twitter website. The Macomb County Genealogy Group has put together a How to Twitter Vote handout that explains how to setup an account and a summary of the contest. There are also copies of this handout in the Mount Clemens Public Library's Local History and Genealogy Room.

#DigUtica

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

Statewide Contest to Digitize Newspapers: The Utica Sentinel is a Finalist Again! Let's Try to Win for 2018

If you recall, last year one of our local historical newspapers, The Utica Sentinel, was a finalist in the 2017 Digital Michigan Newspaper Grant Program. It came in second. Well, second is not good enough so The Sterling Heights Public Library and the Utica Historical Commission decided to try again.

Thankfully, The Utica Sentinel was chosen again as one of the five finalist for the 2018 Digital Michigan Newspaper Grant Program. Now it is up to us in the community to vote The Utica Sentinel all the way to first place for 2018!

What can the community do to show their support for The Utica Sentinel? VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!! Vote as often as you can because every vote counts. How?

January 15 to January 20 -- Postcards (10 points each)
This is the postcard voting time period. All mailed postcards must be postmarked between January 15 and January 20.

Send any pre-made postcard with a Michigan theme to:

• Clarke Historical Library
  250 E. Preston St.
  Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859
  
• All pre-made cards must have "#DigUtica" written somewhere on the card.
• You can pickup pre-addressed Upton House cards at the library for free, but you must use your own stamp(s).

Send any hand-drawn postcard with a Michigan theme to:

• Draw anything with a Michigan theme on a blank postcard.
• All hand-drawn cards must have "#DigUtica" written somewhere on the card.
• If mailing the card yourself, send to the same address listed above.

The Sterling Heights Public Library held a Creative Coloring event on Saturday, January 13 from 2-4pm. Blank postcards were provided at the event and the library planned to send all hand-drawn cards in bulk on January 15.



January 22 to January 27 -- Tweets (1 point each)
This is the tweeting on Twitter voting time period. Any tweet including the hashtag #DigUtica between January 22 and January 27 adds one point to support digitizing The Utica Sentinel.

• Tweet anything with the hashtag "#DigUtica" between January 22 and January 27
• The content of the tweet does not matter, as long as the message is unique and includes the hashtag.
• Tweet as many times as you wish.

Don't have a Twitter account? It is easy to set one up. Don't have a smart phone? That is okay you can tweet from your computer from the Twitter website. The Macomb County Genealogy Group has put together a How to Twitter Vote handout that explains how to setup an account and a summary of the contest. There are also copies of this handout in the Mount Clemens Public Library's Local History and Genealogy Room.

#DigUtica

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

Vote Today Only for Favorite Drawn Postcards, Continue Voting #DigUtica

We're Tweeting, Are You?

Are you on Twitter? If so we hope you are tweet-voting for the 2017 Michigan Newspaper Grant Program winning newspaper. And we hope you are supporting The Utica Sentinel with the #DigUtica hashtag. Macomb County currently has no digitized historical newspaper online.

Today only, January 26, you can also tweet-vote for your favorite "Refrigerator Art Postcard" and "Most Artistic Postcard" which were hand-drawn postcards by children and adults sent into support one of the five finalist newspapers.

Each postcard has its own hashtag. While you're voting for these don't forget to include the hashtag for the newspaper you are supporting, like #DigUtica. (Might as well put each tweet to good use.)

First place towns will receive an extra 500 votes and second place towns will receive an extra 250 votes.

How do you vote? Compose a tweet message and be sure to include #DigUtica to make your vote/tweet count for The Utica Sentinel to win. Don't have Twitter? Vote using Michigan-theme postcards; each postcard sent counts as 10 votes.
Free pre-printed postcards are available at Mount Clemens Public Library and Sterling Heights Public Library. Pick up some postcards, go to the post office, buy some postcard stamps which are 34 cents each, affix stamps and mail. Do it really soon so the postcards make it by the contest deadline.

Postcard for #DigUtica

You can vote for your favorite newspaper as many times as you would like using either Twitter or Michigan-themed postcard and both voting periods end on January 28, 2017. For more details on the grant program and how to vote using postcards or even Twitter, see our original post for digitizing The Utica Sentinel which is one of the five finalists.

And remember, MCGG is now on Twitter under the @MCGGmichigan handle so follow us.


#DigUtica


See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

Got Twitter? Tweet #DigUtica until Jan 28

The Utica Sentinel on microfilm.

Are you tweeting? We hope you are with #DigUtica so your tweet counts as a vote to digitize The Utica Sentinel.

Voting for the 2017 Michigan Newspaper Grant Program winning newspaper using Twitter continues until January 28. 

Compose a message and be sure to include #DigUtica to make your vote/tweet count for The Utica Sentinel to win. Voting using Michigan-theme postcards also continues. Each postcard counts as 10 votes.

Free postcards, already written out, are available at Mount Clemens Public Library and Sterling Heights Public Library. Pick up some postcards, go to the post office, buy some postcard stamps which are 34 cents each, affix stamps and mail. Do it really soon so the postcards make it by the contest deadline.

Postcard for #DigUtica

You can vote for your favorite newspaper as many times as you would like using either Twitter or Michigan-themed postcard and both end on January 28, 2017. For more details on the grant program and how to vote using postcards or even Twitter, see our original post for digitizing The Utica Sentinel which is one of the five finalists.

And remember, MCGG is now on Twitter under the @MCGGmichigan handle so follow us.


#DigUtica


See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

Voting By Twitter Opened Today for 2017 Michigan Newspaper Grant Program Five Newspapers Compete to Win

The Utica Sentinel on microfilm.

This is just to remind everyone that voting for the 2017 Michigan Newspaper Grant Program winning newspaper using Twitter opened today.

Compose a message and be sure to include #DigUtica to make your vote/tweet count for The Utica Sentinel to win. 

Voting using Michigan-theme postcards also continues. Each postcard counts as 10 votes. You can vote as many times as you would like using either Twitter or Michigan-themed postcard.

Postcard for #DigUtica

Voting for your favorite newspaper using Twitter and postcards both end on January 28, 2017. For more details on the grant program and how to vote using postcards or even Twitter, see our original post for digitizing The Utica Sentinel which is one of the five finalists.


#DigUtica


See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

Voting By Postcard Opened Today for 2017 Michigan Newspaper Grant Program Five Newspapers Compete to Win

Upton House theme postcard
by Sterling Heights Public Library

This is just to remind everyone that voting for the 2017 Michigan Newspaper Grant Program winning newspaper using Michigan-themed postcards opened as of today, January 16, 2017.

Voting using postcards runs from January 16 to 28. Each postcard counts as 10 votes and you can vote as many times as you would like.


For more details on the grant program and how to vote using postcards or even Twitter, see our original post for digitizing The Utica Sentinel which is one of the five finalists.

Postcard for #DigUtica

#DigUtica


See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE