We are happy to announce the launch of the Newspapers.com™ Birth Announcement Index. This searchable archive contains over 70 million birth announcements printed in the largest online newspaper archive spanning three centuries.
With the help of AI, we’ve scoured our archives to identify birth announcements and gathered them into a searchable index.
What can you learn from a birth announcement?
Details about Baby: Birth announcements are a great way to learn about the newborn. The announcement might include the baby’s name, birthdate, and sometimes additional details like birth weight and time. Tip: Search for the parents’ names first. The babies’ names are often not mentioned in birth announcements.
Details about Family: Birth announcements offer insights into family relationships. Who are the parents? Are siblings or grandparents listed in the announcement? Tip: You may find additional birth announcements published in the parent’s or grandparent’s hometown papers.
Context of Date and Location: A birth announcement provides clues to the family’s whereabouts and the historical context in which the birth occurred, enriching your understanding of the family’s story. Tip: Explore the local and national news headlines for a snapshot of what was happening when your ancestor was born.
Bridge Gaps in Family History: Birth announcements document a birthdate when no birth record can be located. They also provide proof of life for children who may have been born and died in between census records.
Hints on your Ancestry® Tree: Watch for hints from our Newspapers.com™ Birth Index on your Ancestry® tree!
Explore our new collection of birth announcements today on Newspapers.com™.
First you need to fix the major bug where clicking on a state on the updated page no longer displays any papers that get updated. It just now shows a list of papers from A to Z and half the images don’t load on the update page.
Mollie Mattingly was born Washington DC 1845 Black
I haven’t found a Providence Journal Newspaper (Rhode Island), obituary, in all the years I have been looking for my grandfather’s obituary who passed on June 24, 1949.
Are you sure he had an obit? just asking cos I know people who chose not to have one published. Have you checked find-a-grave or the county he passed away in? I’m sure you’ve googled him too.
I don’t think they have the Providence Journal or any RI papers. Try you local library online they will have it plus a few others and it’s free.
I’m surprised nobody has noticed the new look. It’s not exactly desktop friendly another site going to the ‘mobile first mobile only’ trend. I can’t help but think most comments now are bots.
I would like to know if there was a birth announcement. I’m sure it was Los Angeles California.
Are you a sister or relative of Jennifer ” Nell” Clark ?
So you click the link “Search the Largest Archive of Historical Newspaper Birth Announcements” and it takes you right back to the information page you’re already on.
Having the same issue!
Hi Bonnie, here is the link to the search page: https://go.newspapers.com/birth. You can also search the birth announcements from the “Categories” tab on the search page (the same place you find obits and marriages). Hope this helps.
It would be nice to have some ideas of a time frame for these. Also from where? Are they all American? European, etc…. Is this a big secret? Do you get points for people making useless searches? I won’t bother until I have hours and hours to try to find something I need.
I’m generally happy with this site, but this just made me frustrated. Please…. an update.
Just to try it out, I put in my daughter’s birth information. It couldn’t find anything! I gave it all the info it needed. If you have to give it that much info, you don’t need to look it up!
Hello, are you searching for your daughter’s birth announcement using her name? If you recall, many papers didn’t print the baby’s name (just the parents’ name). You can also check to see if the paper your daughter’s announcement was likely printed in is on the site by searching the “papers” tab. Good luck!
So disappointing reading these comments…. now I know my problems are not mine. I thought AI was going to really elevate Ancestry but it seems the reverse.
I have arthritis so the mobile device trend – AS MENTIONED NEGATIVELY – is not an option I have. It disappoints that ANCESTRY is charging more and becoming more restrictive – especially for the people who have time to use it!
The older we are, the more time we have, and less $ to spend. My time is spent on Ancestry!! and reading.
Can you find a birth announcement of me (Mary Hoagland) in Jacksonville, Florida after October 28, 1943. The parents were Robert Hoagland and his wife, Mabel Jo.
Margaret Smith in Cody, Wyoming baby boy Merrill W. Smith 1952 and Patricia Smith a girl in about 1945, Cody, Wyoming.
using AI is not the solution – sometimes the news paper date is years off from what the clipping shows. We need real people to catalog this information
Charlotte, can you clarify? Have you found a paper with an incorrect date? If so, please let us know and we can quickly get that updated. Thanks.
I’m trying to find the parents of a Michael Clark born 1813 in New York. His parents are unknown. The city or town of his birth are unknown. He married a woman from Ohio and settled in Ringtown, PA in 1836. I thought there might be an announcement of the bith in a paper. I am a Famly Hisroty Counsultant for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and have been looking for hid parents for 7 months. Any help is greatly apprerciated.
Thank you
Judy Burks
Hello, I’m on ancestry.com. I found more info when I took the dna test. Then it connected me to people that I had a close dna match to. From that it connected me to people that have taken a ancestry dna. I am also getting help at my local library .
I’m trying to find passport pictures or any newspaper etc. of
Abraham moshe Katzenelenbogen from russia to palestine around 1840 – to 1924
of his father Reb Chaim Binyamin Katzenellenbogen Russia to USA 1810 – 1903
Looking for the first wife of my Greatgrandfather, Thomas Hayes, St. Louis, Mo. Both she & my Greatgrandfather were from Ireland. Thomas died 1901 & my Greatgrandmother 1903, her name was Margaret Boylan & she was also from Ireland. Thank you!