“Explore Billions of Articles in our Newspaper Archives.”
That’s the tagline that got me. I always have investigators that ask me about tracking down articles, deaths, marriages, births and more. How awesome would it be to have all that at your fingertips? Is having newspaper archives a useful resource though? In this article, we’re going to find out.
Paid Plans
There are 3 plans available:
- Monthly – $22.99 (no free trial)
- 6 Months – $15.99 billed at $95.94 (7-day free trial)
- 1 year – $12.99 billed at $155.88 (7-day free trial)
I decided on the 6 month plan just to test out the website.
Basic & Advanced Search
Now that I’m a full fledged (free trial) member, it’s time to search for newspaper archives. I doubt the basic search is going to work well, unless you have a unique name or keyword or title.
I attempted a keyword search in quotes:
“Canton MA Police”
Unfortunately it seems that quote based search don’t work. This means on the basic search, you better have a very unique keyword. Let’s try the advanced search and see if we have better luck.
This is more like it! I’ll run through a series of searches and show you the results, if any.
Eric Neal – Massachusetts: 86 results
Some results had my full name in it, but most just contained my name in the result, but not in order. I sorted by the newest date, but didn’t find any results for me. I have been referenced in the paper before, but more local listings. We’re definitely not off to a good start!
Aidan Kearney – Massachusetts + Turtleboy (keyword): 0 results
Nothing on the infamous Turtleboy and I know he’s been in multiple newspapers. My hope of this newspaper archive site being a good resource is dwindling. We’ll try some more searches.
Lorne Armstrong – United States: 34 results
This is crazy! Lorne Armstrong is one of the most notable characters in TCAP (To Catch a Predator) history. Not one result led to the right person.
Marlene Dietrich – Germany: 418 results
Marlene Dietrich was a German singer and actress. I guess if I was looking into her, this would be a great resource.
Conclusion
I was really looking forward to trying this resource. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I was left severely underwhelmed. Not being able to do a search for a name and having the search show results for the name in the proper order is quite discouraging.
Is this a good resource for investigators or web sleuths.. perhaps if you’re looking for someone with a unique name. My vote is to save your money and look elsewhere.
Thanks for reading!
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