{"id":5746,"date":"2020-12-13T08:40:21","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T13:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/?p=5746"},"modified":"2026-04-10T16:10:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T20:10:56","slug":"searching-newspapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/searching-newspapers\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Subject of Searching Newspapers"},"content":{"rendered":"

This posting was first posted on Facebook<\/a> in October 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s log some thoughts about the searching of newspaper archives, for the collective benefit of current and future researchers.<\/p>\n

Today we\u2019re searching the Asheville Citizen Times archives, via newspapers.com, via their seven-day free trial. Which may get extended to a full, paid month, depending upon need. And the search subject is state firemen\u2019s conventions. <\/p>\n

You\u2019ll recall that we\u2019ve mentioned newspapers.com numerous times before, as it\u2019s available via free access from the North Carolina State Government Library web site. Get a free library card from them and, boom, go. <\/p>\n

Except\u2026 that newspapers.com resource is called North Carolina Historical Collection and does NOT include the Asheville Citizen Times. Similar to the absence of non-public domain issues (post-late 1920s) of the News & Observer, the Charlotte Observer, and the Greensboro News & Record, for example. Those require NewsBank subscriptions, by day, or week, or month.<\/p>\n

Anyway, now that we\u2019ve set up our subscription, let\u2019s commence searching. Access the site and drill down to the Asheville Citizen Times, under the \u201cchoose newspapers\u201d option.<\/p>\n

Now, what to search for? Let\u2019s start with \u201cfiremen\u2019s\u201d and see where that leads. But that\u2019s likely a bit broad. So we\u2019ll try \u201cfiremen\u2019s meeting\u201d and, in a second search, \u201cfiremen\u2019s convention.\u201d (Does the site allow complex “and\/or” searches, with multiple strings? Good question!)<\/p>\n

And the default search results are \u201cby relevance,\u201d which means those articles that \u201cscore the highest\u201d for that match. This works, except\u2026<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll soon realize that there are two types of articles. Those about conventions OUTSIDE of Asheville, and those that took place in the city. Or in nearby locations, like Hendersonville, which was a one-time host. <\/p>\n

So let\u2019s further refine our search. First, consult a master list of conference locations, via Google, via Mike\u2019s web pages. From there, let\u2019s go year-by-year, for those events that took place in Asheville.<\/p>\n

Changing our search parameters, let\u2019s search on the first one, \u201cJuly 1892.\u201d That will restrict searches to only those issues of the \u201cCitizen Times\u201d (then, just the Asheville Citizen) to that month. From there, let\u2019s search on \u201cfiremen\u2019s\u201d alone. From there, let\u2019s sort the results by oldest to newest. From there, let\u2019s find the first mention of the coming convention.<\/p>\n

By doing this whole-month search, we can see both the big\/full stories\u2014during the week of the event\u2014and the smaller ones. Mentions of city preparations. List of the program. Maybe even some advertisements targeted at firemen.<\/p>\n

For each found story, we will save a copy, by \u201cprinting\u201d a JPEG version, which we\u2019ll save to our local computer. The file name will have the paper name plus date, which will makes for terrible file sorting. Later, he will manually rename each file, and add YYYY-MM-DD to the beginning. Or cheat and use his program Flash Renamer.<\/p>\n

After all this, we’ll do another search on “fireman’s” instead of “firemen’s.” Also one without the apostrophe. And if I search for other topics, the keywords could include “fire truck”, “fire engine”, “fire apparatus,” “fire horse”, “fire steamer,” “fire house”, “firehouse”, “fire station”, “fire company”, “fire fighter”, etc. <\/p>\n

And there you have a few notes on the subject of searching.<\/p>\n

And from there, we will rinse and repeat with “colored firemen” and “colored firemen’s”, to find those even-more-rare stories about the state’s colored firemen’s association conventions. Those were also held for decades.<\/p>\n