For those searching for newspaper articles on their ancestors, regardless of which way you choose to obtain the article you will need to know the individuals name, date of event and location. Many times this information is not known which is one reason you want to find an article in the first place. While searching microfilmed newspapers for my ancestors I recognized many surnames that others in the area were researching and began copying this information and sending it thru local mail lists in an effort to help others in their search. Out of this grew the idea of providing a central location to archive these articles for all to search and hopefully provide that tidbit of information for someone to knock down that brick wall. On that note..... The goal of http://www.NewspaperAbstracts.com and the IL-Old-News mail list is to provide a place for all to share news articles from newspapers published before 1931. These articles are provided by list members and site visitors along with County and State Coordinators who transcribe items they have and submit them thru this list for inclusion in this project. The site and mail list is available to all at no cost and we are always looking individuals interested in helping with this project. For more information on how you can help see: http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/volunteer.html How you can find that article of interest: We do not provide lookup services however you are free to request lookups thru the list in the hopes that a fellow listmember may search for the article on your behalf. When requesting a lookup provide the name of the subject you are looking for, the date the event occured along with the town and county. There are millions of pages of microfilmed newspapers on well over 77,000 rolls of microfilm for Illinois alone and any request without this basic information will most likely be ignored. Most (not all) libraries have microfilmed copies of newspapers published in their area and many will do lookup requests for a small charge or donation. Contact by phone, letter or email the library in the area you are searching for their lookup policy. Illinois newspapers are available on microfilm thru interlibrary loan. To find the newspapers available for the location you are interested in do a search at: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/techserv/inp/mergeddatabase/search_form.asp Copy down all of the information given for the newspaper you are interested in borrowing and take this information to the inter-library loan department at your local library. You will also need to provide them with the month and year you are wanting to borrow as most titles are on more than one microfilm reel. There is a small charge (usually under $3.00) for this service and some libraries pass on this fee to their patrons. Interlibrary loan is my preferred method for obtaining articles. While looking thru the reels I usually run across other items of value to my research that I would have otherwise not found had I not been reading the microfilm myself. You can request a lookup in newspapers or other materials at the Illinois State Historical Library. See the "Newspaper Search Policy" near the end of the page at this site: http://www.state.il.us/hpa/lib/ishlgen.htm For out of state residents it is typically less expensive to borrow the microfilm thru interlibrary loan than have them perform the lookup for you. Again, they do require exact names, dates and locations before they will do a search. Another site for obituary lookups - not associated with our site or list - can be found at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~obitl/ For more state newspaper lists associated with us see: http://www.NewspaperAbstracts.com/maillists.html Good luck in your search! Barbara (Saxbury) Freeman http://NewspaperAbstracts.com Finding our ancestors in the news! http://www.PikeCoILGenWeb.org Pike Co ILGenWeb http://Saxbury.net Saxbury Family History http://members.aol.com/saxbury AOL Members Genealogy Web Sites http://AutumnWindz.com Autumn Windz Soaps & Supplies