Newspapers have to be my 'favourite' genealogy resource. And while I've spent many happy hours reliving other decades in microfilm, I surely do love having access to digitized versions at home.
Canada does not, I'm sad to say, have any national digitizing project(s) for historical newspapers. However, we did, over time, amass extensive collections of French and English language newspapers, and some newspapers in other languages, and some specialized newspapers, including labour papers. Almost all were microfilmed, and now are being s-l-o-w-l-y digitized. The good news is that most of those digitized are now available free on line.
My first stop now searching for digital newspaper archives on-line is at The Ancestor Hunt. This is Kenneth R. Marks website and he has lists of on-line Canadian digitized newspapers. He also has links to online indexes for newspaper indexes, and for obituaries which may be useful to you.
Library and Archives Canada has a list of the microfilmed newspapers sorted by province - the .pdf versions are likely the most helpful. Each entry includes the newspapers name, LAC call #, the dates the paper started/finished; and any later names. For example, this entry under Manitoba - Winnipeg:
"Öldin : an Icelandic weekly record of current events and contemporary thought. NJ FM 866 Sept. 3, 1891-1893. AN 7537368"
It is always worth searching to see if there is more information about the newspaper's history and the topics and points of view covered. In this case, the newspaper did have another few years, 1893-1896.
The University of Alberta maintains a searchable database created by Sathya Rayo which may be helpful - the Canadian Minority Media Database: http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/MinorityMedia/
Provincial, local and academic archives and museums and private collectors may be holding newspaper issues.
While I would always try to search in any appropriate non-English language newspapers, I do recommend first searching the English or French language papers, depending on the areas of Canada you are researching.
You may find articles directly mentioning your family member in two or three different newspapers, and one or all could be from clear across the country (or in another country).
I usually start out searching using known names or places, but if little is found, I broaden that search, especially in the English or French papers. In the case of accidents, for example, it could be that names have changed, or that no names are mentioned in an article, but place of birth might be - "A Norwegian longshoreman..."
This is especially important if you do not read the appropriate language. Once you have some confirmed details, you can search non-English newspapers more successfully.
If you are lucky, and patient, for instance, you might find how your Swedish grandmother could have ended up working in Sointula, BC, known first as a Finnish Utopian community. She might have replied to this ad in the 1920s.
Even when newspaper articles don't answer our questions directly, they may offer us a glimpse of life in a certain community at a given time. You shouldn't believe everything you read in the news, of course! Look for other evidence to strengthen your analyses.Here, for example, is all the news from Scandinavia in Manitoba in October 1909. Scandinavia is a town, now in the Municipality of Clanwilliam – Erickson; the Scandinavia post office opened in 1886, The news shared in this column could back up a family story of how strange the weather was that year the horse drowned, or confirm the name and home residence of a family's favourite teacher. Or if Erick Carlson was your relative, when he left Manitoba's winter for "greener fields, in B.C."
Scandinavia, town column, Minnedosa Tribune, Minnedosa, Manitoba, Thursday, 21 October 1909, Formerly in the Manitobia Collection, now in the University of Manitoba UM Digital Collections, Attribution 2.5 Canada (CC BY 2.5 CA).
September 26-27, 2020 - Registration and details.Virtual Nordic Genealogy Conference: https://www.nordicmuseum.org/genealogyconference
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