MyHeritage has just launched OldNews.com, a digital archive designed to take you on a journey through the past. This innovative platform opens the door to a vast collection of historical newspapers from across the globe, making it easier than ever to uncover fascinating stories and hidden details about your ancestors and events from the not-too-distant past.
At its launch, OldNews.com provides access to hundreds of millions of newspaper pages, which will continually grow with millions added each month. This extensive collection, which spans from major international newspapers to local gazettes, focuses on the rich history of the 1800s and 1900s. Featured countries at the outset include the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Australia, offering an interesting view of the world's history.
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The site's advanced search capabilities allow you to refine your hunt for history by name, place, event, and more, presenting results with images of documents and highlights of your search terms. While the optical character recognition (OCR) technology isn't flawless, it impressively bridges the gap between the past and present by making these historical documents viewable as images and searchable with text.
My own exploration of OldNews.com led to a couple of fun finds: my parents' wedding announcement in the Boston Globe and a mention of my role in a "Godspell" production captured in a local newspaper. Note that you have to sign up for the service or put in a credit card to see the full newspaper article. However, you can search for free to see partial images of stories it finds with your queries and snippets of the relevant text.
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Interested in embarking on your own historical adventure? OldNews.com offers a free 7-day trial, after which subscriptions are available for just $74 for the first year, with an annual renewal rate of $99.
[Image credit: screenshots via Techlicious, laptop mockup via Canva]
For the past 20+ years, Techlicious founder Suzanne Kantra has been exploring and writing about the world’s most exciting and important science and technology issues. Prior to Techlicious, Suzanne was the Technology Editor for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and the Senior Technology Editor for Popular Science. Suzanne has been featured on CNN, CBS, and NBC.
