Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections

The Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections contain 45 full-text titles from the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Nearly 93,000 issues are available. In addition to newspapers, the collection includes trade journals from different fields. Access is free. You can register and help correct the OCR text so that information will be easier for others to find.

Some of my ancestors lived in Illinois, so this resource is very useful to me. I have already found many items of interest. I learned where my paternal grandparents  Henry Cornelius Gatlin and Helen Martha Marie Anderson held their wedding reception.

 True Republican, 24 June 1939, page 4. Available from Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.

I learned that my grandfather Henry Gatlin was on the committee that was in charge of the arrangements for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's annual summer field day.

Chicago Packer, 16 July 1938, page 2. Available from Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.

I learned that my great-grandparents Edward Theodore Anderson and Ellen Victoria (Dahlquist) Anderson traveled from Florida to Lakeside, Michigan in 1957 so they could celebrate my great-grandfather's 75th birthday with family at my grandparents' summer home.

True Republican, 16 August 1957, page 2. Available from Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.

Some news from out of state is included as well. I found out that my great-grandfather's brother William D. Gatlin, who served four prison sentences, escaped from jail in Bloomington, Indiana in 1912.

The Day Book, vol. 1 no. 306, 18 September 1912, page 25. Available from Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections.