During Saturday’s webinar, Finding Your Family with OurDigitalWorld Online Newspapers, hosted by the Quinte Branch of Ontario Ancestors, OurDigitalWorld Project Coordinator Jess Posgate spoke briefly about the searchable online Italian-Canadian newspapers.
These Italian-language newspapers range from the years 1929 to 1946. Some were published in Toronto and some in Montreal. They are available, with many other newspapers, on the Ontario Community Newspapers Portal.
The Italian-Canadian newspapers collection was contributed by York University Library’s Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections.
Advanced search
A basic keyword search can be conducted, or you can search one or more words, such as a first and last name.
To narrow down the results, the advanced search feature allows you to select the geographic location, either Toronto or Montreal. A search of the surname, Mancuso, for example, resulted in 180 hits in Toronto newspapers and 167 in Montreal newspapers.
It appears you also select a specific newspaper, but that didn’t work for me the way I expected. When I selected Il Cittadino Canadese, I received only one result, not the seven indicated. When I selected La Voce degli Italo-Canadesi, I received zero results, not 24. In the case of L’Araldo del Canada, I saw 124 matching items, not 140.
The key is to play around with the keywords and filters to find out what works for you.
In some, but not in every case, the keyword is highlighted on the newspaper image.
Even with no knowledge of Italian, I was able to figure out that the following article is about the 50th wedding anniversary of Carlo Dicerni and his wife Carolina Mancuso and that they lived on 8th Avenue in Lachine, a Montreal suburb. Further deciphering will require a phone call, followed by an email, to my Italian neighbours across the street.
Source: Ontario Community Newspapers, OurDigitalWorld, vitacollections.ca.
The presentation was recorded and will be posted on the Quinte Branch’s website.
