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The Fort Wayne Sentinel newspaper was located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This database is a fully searchable text version of the newspaper for the following years: 1894-1904, 1906-09. The ability to search the newspapers is dependent upon the quality of the original images. The images for this newspaper can be browsed sequentially, or via links to specific images, which may be obtained through the search results. Over time the name of a newspaper may have changed and the time span it covered may not always be consistent. The date range represented in this database is not necessarily the complete published set available. Check the local library or historical society in the area in which your ancestors lived for more information about other available newspapers.
Newspapers can be used to find valuable genealogical information about historical events in the lives of our ancestors. They supply all sorts of clues about vital statistics (birth, marriage, and death announcements), obituaries, local news, biographical sketches, legal notices, immigration, migration, and shipping information and other historical items that place our ancestors in the context of the society in which they lived.
Extended Description: Newspapers are intended for general readers, usually serve a geographic
region, and may also be oriented toward a particular ethnic, cultural,
social, or political group. Newspapers record the day-to-day or even
week-to-week happenings of local community events. They act almost as a
diary for events that took place in a certain locality. Because newspapers are generally geographic in scope they are not
limited to governmental jurisdictions; therefore, they can include such
things as the report of a wedding of local citizens, even when it occurred
in a neighboring county or even another state. Newspapers can also provide
at least a partial substitute for nonexistent civil records. For example,
an obituary may have appeared in a newspaper even when civil death records
did not exist. Newspapers are not restricted to or bound by the regulations or forms
used by more "official" sources. Additionally, because
newspapers are unofficial sources, even when they merely supplement the
public records, they can provide much incidental information that is
simply not recorded anywhere else. For example, a newspaper account of a
marriage might indicate that it took place at the home of the bride's
parents, perhaps even naming them; it might list the occupation of the
groom, or indicate that the ceremony was part of a double wedding in which
the bride's sister was also married. These types of details are not likely
to appear on a marriage record at the local courthouse. While newspapers created in large cities were most often concerned with
international, national, and state affairs they can contain valuable
information about local individuals and should not be passed over. In
contrast, small country or community newspapers were concerned with local
people and their immediate surroundings and are often rich in genealogical
and historical information. Newspapers are wonderful sources and should not be missed! Taken from "Chapter 12: Research in Newspapers," The
Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy by James L. Hansen; edited
by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking (Salt Lake City,
UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1997).
Source Information:
Fort Wayne Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana).
Note: This page can be used as a front end into
Ancestry's newspapers. Since this links to a newspaper membership database at Ancestry, you must
first join in order to more then just search the database.
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