Hey, Macomb County Researchers we have some news to share with you about digitized newspapers.
While the counties around us have been getting their historical newspapers digitized here and there, for the longest time there was no digitized historical newspaper for Macomb County. That is actually starting to change a bit. But some patience is required.
The Utica Sentinel
After coming in second twice for the Michigan Digital Newspaper Grant program through Clarke Historical Library, in 2019 the Utica Heritage Association paid to have the earlier years of The Utica Sentinel digitized -- some surviving editions from 1870 and 1876 along with the surviving editions from 1879 to 1906.
Unfortunately, one of Macomb County's first digitized historical newspapers is still trying to make its way online thus patience is needed until this can be made to happen. COVID-19 has slowed this process. We thought we would let you know that there is some light on the horizon.
The Romeo Observer
Another Macomb County's first historical newspapers being digitized is The Romeo Observer. This one is being done in-house at The Romeo Community Archives from the original newspapers which now reside in the archives. The plan is the digitized newspapers will be available at the archives with some possible costs. (We have a profile on The Romeo Community Archives that we will post closer to when the area's libraries and archives are set to open once again.)
Mt. Clemens newspapers from 1940 to 1945
Today, it was discovered by one of our favorite library's retired staff members that editions of the Mount Clemens Daily Monitor (1941-1942) and Mount Clemens Daily Monitor Leader (1942-1945) covering the World War II years have been digitized and are available on Chronicling America. This is a very recent addition to Chronicling America because these newspapers are not yet searchable as other Chronicling America newspapers are on Newspapers.com, MyHeritage Newspaper collection, or the Elephind.com newspaper search website.Don't get too excited because we have not heard anything regarding any other years (and there are many) of any other Mount Clemens newspapers being digitized.
But being able to play around with the five years that are digitally available really makes a researcher dream and wish for the complete run to be digitized some day ... over the rainbow .. so one can find those little bits besides obituaries that can be oh, so interesting.
So how about some search tips for using Chronicling America?
To restrain your search to a specific state, or to one specific newspaper or just a few specific states or newspapers use the Advanced Search tab. Note that newspapers with different titles/mastheads over the years may actually be listed as separate newspapers in this database. Such as the case for the two Mount Clemens newspapers mentioned above.
In the Advanced Search tab, to restrain the search to just one newspaper title or specific newspaper titles use just the Select Newspaper column. For one newspaper title, scroll thru the list to find the desired newspaper. Even if the city/location is part of the newspaper title/masthead the city/location is not listed as part of the title/masthead in this list. Instead you will find the city/location listed in parentheses after the remainder of the title/masthead. So for the Mount Clemens newspapers mentioned above look under "daily" instead of "Mount Clemens."- To select one newspaper title just use: left-mouse click to select.
- To select multiple newspaper titles directly next to one another in the list use: shift+left-mouse click to do the selection.
- To select multiple newspaper titles not directly next to one another in the list use: control+left-mouse click.
If desired, adjust the time frame searched using the years or date
range options. Enter your other search parameters (like your surnames) using the search boxes
titled: with any of the words; with all of the words; with the phrase;
or with the words within the desired number of words with each other.
Remember the more you enter the more narrowed your search results become.
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Advanced Search of two newspaper titles/mastheads.
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In the Advanced Search tab, to restrain the search to one state select the desired state from the Select State column.
Use the same selection methods (left-mouse click, shift+left-mouse click, control+left-mouse click) to select one or more states from the list.
This
will search all newspapers for the particular state(s) selected for the
search.
If desired, adjust the time frame searched using the years or date
range options. Enter your other search parameters (like your surnames) using the search boxes
titled: with any of the words; with all of the words; with the phrase;
or with the words within the desired number of words with each other.
Remember the more you enter the more narrowed your search results become.
With either search type, on the Search Results page you can change the view from 20 to 50 results per page. In the light-blue bar above the results newspaper thumbnails, you will see how many hit results you received. The results view can be viewed in Gallery or List format. The advantage of the Gallery thumbnails view is you will see your search parameter (such as surnames) highlighted on the thumbnail page image. Results can also be sorted by State, Title or Date. Too many results? Go back and refine/narrow your search.
Overall, remember that the search engine will ignore common words such as and, not, the. The case of letters is ignored such as Civil and civil. Diacritic characters produce inaccurate results so just use the plain character such as ü use u. The search engine will include word variants (stemming) such as house, houses, housing. Lastly, remember to use the language of the time period. Today, we say gas station or service station whereas an historic usage is filling station. More help can be found on the Chronicling America Help page.
Good Luck with your searching!
See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE
