getting started with oldnews usa
TRANSCRIPT
Getting Started With OldNews USA
How to find your ancestors in historic US newspapers using the OldNews USA app for Android
Bill Nelson Revgenea Software LLC
http://revgenea.com
What Is It?
OldNews USA is a free Android app for performing research in historic newspapers
Uses the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America collection of digitized newspapers
Has over 10,800,000 newspaper pages from 1836 to 1922
For Genealogists Old newspaper stories can make your family history research come alive with details that can't be found elsewhere
If your family tree consists of little more than names and dates, you need to try searching old newspapers
Discover family stories and details that have been lost to history!
For History Buffs Read contemporary accounts of major historical events, including
Civil War battles
Lincoln’s assassination
San Francisco earthquake
Chicago Cubs win the world series
The Titanic sinks
World War I
Prohibition
Presidential elections
Genealogy Case StudyDecide what you want to find
OldNews USA can be used to research a specific person, or a historical event/topic
This case study shows how to research a specific person, namely my great grandfather:
Who: Joseph Nelson
When: 1880 - 1920
Where: Stratford, New Hampshire
Overview of StepsCreate a Goal to define your research objective
Who/What, When, and Where
Check out the Research Suggestions!
Search and View Search Results
Display Page and Review Search Term Matches
Save and Share Your Discoveries
Refine Search and Keep Looking
How To Start
Get the free OldNews USA app from the Google Play Store
Create a Goal to get started
Create a Goal
Create Goal Initial Screen
Enter goal name, description, and date range, then select a locality
Google Place Picker dialog is displayed
Pick a Place
Google Place Picker Initial Screen
Search for a place by name, then select it
Map zooms to the place, then touch the location to select
Save Your Goal
Selected Place
Save your new Goal Main View with new Current Goal card
Research SuggestionsOnce you create a Goal, OldNews USA creates a few new cards containing research suggestions
Newspaper Suggestions
The newspapers closest to your Goal’s location with issues published within the year range
Search Suggestions
Pre-defined searches using the words from the Goal name
Research Suggestions
Suggested list of 10 newspaper titles most likely to contain
articles about your goal
Suggested list of pre-built searches based on your
goal data
Most Specific
Less Specific
Search By Newspaper
Select a suggested search
Search by Newspaper screen with all data already entered!
Touch the Search button
to send the search to the Chronicling
America site
Search Results
Select first newspaper page that matched
the search
Newspaper page - tap page to review
search term matches
Tap
Page automatically zooms to highlighted search term matches
More Search Results
Select next newspaper page that matched
the search
Newspaper page - tap page to review
search term matches
Tap
Page automatically zooms to highlighted search term matches
Page ControlsSave clipping of current page display
Save complete page as a PDF file
Toggle highlighting of search terms
Get higher quality page image
Touch tab or swipe page left to display next page
Touch tab or swipe page right to display previous page
Tap anywhere in page to zoom and review search term
matchesPinch to zoom in or out, drag finger to position page image
Save Clipping
Disable highlights, then touch the Clipping
icon to save
Save Clipping dialog Save and share to Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, or any app you choose
Newspaper Clipping
Complete source citation, automatically
generated and embedded in the clipping image
RecapIn just a few minutes, and using only the first automated search suggestion, I found 2 articles that mention my great grandfather
I didn’t need to learn how to search on the Chronicling America website
I didn’t spend hours figuring out which newspaper titles to search
I didn’t even need to enter any search terms
Of course there is much more searching to do, but I’m off to a good start
Keep LookingThe search is just beginning
Next time, we will discuss more search options
Search By State
Advanced search options
Search tips and tricks
Happy searching!
Get OldNews USA
Copyright 2016 Revegenea Software LLC All Rights Reserved
Researching in historic newspapers has never been easier!