In my last post, I discussed the sources I’ve drawn on to write about the history of the Sufferers’ Land and the Norwalk High School Class of 1907. One source I did not discuss was newspaper archives. There are many free sites out there: my current home state of Colorado has a wonderful collection at the Colorado Historical Newspaper Collection. But not all states and localities have these online archives. Which brings us to the two big pay websites: Newspapers.com and NewspaperArchive.com.

Now, I do not want to get into a debate of which of these are better. They appear similar in ease of use, and subscription price. What makes the difference, to me, is coverage. I subscribe to NewspaperArchive.com simply because its archives cover Norwalk, Ohio history – where I focus my research – for 149 years, starting on February 2, 1830 with the first issue of the Huron Reflector. I describe the founding of this newspaper (by my ancestors) in my Sufferers’ Land post, The Norwalk Reflector.

Here’s a list of what newspapers are available on NewspaperArchive.com:

Huron Reflector: 1830-1862

Norwalk Daily Reflector: 1882-1913

Norwalk Evening Herald: 1902-1913

Norwalk Experiment: 1841-1844

Huron County Democrat: 1913 (May 22)

Norwalk Huron Reflector: 1830-1853 (same as Huron Reflector).

Norwalk Reflector: 1862-1863; 1964-1979

Norwalk Reflector Herald: 1913-1964

Norwalk Reporter & Huron Advertiser: 1827-1830.

How do I use newspapers? After exhausting all other resources available to me (including the gems in my grandmother’s papers), I search in NewspaperArchive.com by surname to fill in the blanks, and browse issues on, before and after important dates in my ancestors’ lives (birth, marriage, death, etc.). This latter tactic has been especially helpful in finding obituaries.

Newspaper archives are a great, and relatively new, resource. If you are not using them in your research, you are really missing out.

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With all my writing about the Firelands and Norwalk, Ohio. You might think that I was born and grew up there. But you’d be wrong. My birthplace is Amherst, Ohio, and I grew up in Lorain and Avon Lake; all in three are Lorain County, to the east of the Firelands. Although I spent many Sunday afternoons with my family visiting my great-aunt Eleanor Wickham at the old Benedict mansion on Seminary Street in Norwalk, I never lived there.

In fact, to my knowledge, I have only slept one night in the city: Thursday, September 27, 1973. How do I know that exact date, you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you that story in my next post: One Night in Norwalk – A Hitchhiker’s Tale.

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