It has been brought to my attention that
Google News offers images of historic newspapers though their News Archive Search. The "About" section offers the following information:
About News Archive Search
"News Archive Search provides an easy way to search and explore historical
archives. Users can search for events, people or ideas and see how they have
been described over time.
Search results include content from a number of sources, including both
partner content digitized by Google through our News Archives Partner Program
and online archival materials that we've crawled. Search results can include
content that is freely accessible as well as content that requires a fee. You
can either browse through the
full collection
of papers scanned or use
Advanced News Search
to specify the date range in which you'd like to search the archives."
The closest newspapers in proximity to Poplar Bluff that I could locate are three published in Cape Girardeau:
- The Daily Republican (1,169 issues covering April 1, 1908 - February 28, 1918)
- Cape Girardeau Bulletin (232 issues covering December 28, 1967 - Oct 14, 1976)
- Southeast Missourian (22,937 issues covering November 17, 1901 - December 31, 2007) This paper is still in production and issues since September 2001 are available on their website.
The oldest newspaper I've managed to locate so far has been an issue of the
St. John's Gazette from September 12, 1788! Another paper I browsed,
The Centinel dated November 27, 1805, provides contemporary reports of the state of affairs in France regarding Napoleon Bonaparte.
Resources such as these will provide you with day-to-day historical context (locally and globally) in which to place your ancestor's life.
Happy reading and good luck with your research!
