A Fresh Light on Old Newspapers

Dave Obee
Jun 28, 2023
1.7K views
CC
Want to watch the full webinar?
Join now to access all 2,154 webinars and unlock all features.

Content

Play. Playing.
Welcome
1m 28s
Play. Playing.
Speaker's Introduction
1m 18s
Play. Playing.
Introduction
8m 48s
Play. Playing.
Tips for Searching
10m 08s
Play. Playing.
News stories
14m 09s
Play. Playing.
OCR
15m 14s
Play. Playing.
Sources
10m 57s
Play. Playing.
Announcements / prizes
3m 41s
Play. Playing.
Questions / answers
16m 29s

About this webinar

Researching in old newspapers no longer means sitting at a microfilm reader for hours on end, winding through a seemingly endless string of news stories and advertisements. Today, the results we seek could be a matter of minutes away, thanks to the many digitization projects that have placed millions of newspaper pages on the Internet. But what are the pitfalls? This presentation takes you through the digitization process, from hard copy to your computer screen. It is designed to help you achieve the best results from your work. (Note: Dave Obee has worked in newspapers for 50 years, has researched with them for 50 years, and has been behind a major digitization project. This talk draws from real experience.)

About the speaker

About the speaker

Dave Obee is a journalist and genealogical researcher who has written a dozen books and given more than 700 presentations at conferences and seminars in Canada, the United States and Australia since 1997. He is Editor and Publisher of the T
Learn more...

Comments (105)

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

1000 characters remaining

Sort by Newest
Sort by Close.
  • Newest
  • Oldest
  • Likes
  1. WS
    Wayne Shepheard
    9 months ago

    Excellent summary on the use of newspapers. Great tips on how to use the resources even for those who are already familiar with them

    Reply
  2. JS
    Judith Shubert
    9 months ago

    Very good information.

    Reply
  3. RM
    Ramon Morena
    9 months ago

    Great insight to optimize your search results in old newspapers. Also appreciated the endorsement of using old newspapers to research lead on new DNA matches- my hottest current challenge for our family right now, as we have just discovered a mis-attributed parentage thruugh recent DNA testing!!

    Reply
  4. MG
    Mary Gilore
    9 months ago

    For 21 yrs I was the Historian/Genealogist in the Seymour Public Library, History Room, Auburn, N.Y., Cayuga County. From the first day people came to the desk with the question “Are the bound vols. of the newspapers indexed.” So began a project of mine to do that beginning with the oldest on the shelves. It would never be finished but it was a start. I had to use some very old programs with limitation, then to Excel. It help keeping the vols in a little better condition over the years.

    Reply
  5. KM
    Karen Marks
    9 months ago

    It was heartening to listen to someone who appreciates newspapers. So many people just scroll and glance to see what they should know/be afraid of. He was spot on about trying to know politicians’ positions. Locally, there are not enough reporters to do it. Fund newspapers that do not push an agenda or people will believe what they “read” from unknown sources.

    Reply
  6. JA
    Jane A Miller
    9 months ago

    Excellent! I always enjoy Dave Obee’s presentations…wherever I hear them.

    Reply
  7. KP
    Kay Pilgrim
    9 months ago

    Great hints about using newspapers for research.

    Reply
  8. LH
    Lin Hines
    9 months ago

    Terrific to hear this information directly from a longtime editor and publisher of an important Canadian paper! My local paper, the Seattle Times, is on the same important mission to tell the world of the importance of local newspapers and yes! I do subscribe to that paper. Interestingly both of my local papers and now only available in digital form since in my area, the capital of Washington state, Olympia, we have an almost complete lack of “paperboys” meaning home delivery is no available!

    Reply

Related Webinars