How to find your ancestors in historic US newspapers using the OldNews USA app for Android.

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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!

4. 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

5. Genealogy Case Study
Decide 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

6. Overview of Steps
Create 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

7. How To Start
Get the free OldNews USA app
from the Google Play Store
Create a Goal to
get started

8. Create a Goal
Create Goal
Initial Screen
Enter goal name, description,
and date range, then select a locality
Google Place Picker
dialog is displayed

9. 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

10. Save Your Goal
Selected
Place
Save your new Goal Main View with new
Current Goal card

11. Research Suggestions
Once 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. Page Controls
Save 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
matches
Pinch to zoom in or out, drag
finger to position page image

17. 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

18. Newspaper Clipping
Complete source
citation, automatically
generated and embedded in the
clipping image

19. Recap
In 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

20. Keep Looking
The search is just beginning
Next time, we will discuss more search options
Search By State
Advanced search options
Search tips and tricks
Happy searching!

21. Get OldNews USA
Copyright 2016 Revegenea Software LLC
All Rights Reserved
Researching in historic newspapers
has never been easier!