While reading the March/April 2016 issue of Family Tree Magazine, I came across a list of Major Online Foreign Newspaper Collections that contained two Canadian databases that were new to me.
New Brunswick
The Daniel F Johnson’s New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics on the provincial archives’ website is a database of transcriptions based on more than 23 years of work by the late Danny Johnson. The collection covers the period January 29, 1784 to December 31, 1896.
Mr. Johnson became best known for his publication of Vital Statistics from New Brunswick Newspapers. He mined all English-language New Brunswick newspapers and transcribed notices of births, marriages, deaths, and also of ship wrecks, trips outside the province, and many other events that contain names that would help a family historian search for an ancestor.
Look at these impressive stats:
• 298,097 transcriptions
• 640,994 name indexes
• 311,516 unique names
• 76 newspapers
Southern Alberta
The University of Lethbridge has digitized more than 20 Southern Alberta newspapers to create the Southern Alberta Newspaper Collection: Alberta Star, Barons Enterprise, Barons Globe, Cardston News, Cardston Record, Granum Adverister, Granum Herald, Granum News, Granum Press, Granum Times, Kainai News, Lethbridge News, Macleod Advertiser, Macleod Chronicle, Macleod Gazette, Macleod News, Macleod Spectator, Magrath Pioneer, Milk River Review, and Sun Dance Echo.
Unfortunately, coverage of these newspapers is rather sporadic. In some cases, only a few recent years have been digitized. The only newspapers scanned from the 19th century are the Macleod Gazette, starting in 1897, and Lethbridge News, starting in 1885.
The good news is this newspaper collection is easy to search by key word or browse.
I have added the New Brunswick and Southern Alberta collections to the Newspapers section in my Genealogy Research Toolbox.
