Newspapers are important sources of information, especially so in cases where an individual was actively involved in a religious or ethnic organization. These small newspapers frequently speak of their groups' well-known and respected members; thus, you may find much information abut an individual and his "other family" that would not normally be found in a local newspaper.

Immigrants to America generally longed for familiarity and thus gravitated toward others who shared similar origins, cultures, customs, languages, and religious beliefs. They often congregated in ethnic communities and associated with others of their own ethnic and religious groups. In such communities, individuals were more likely to be recognized and respected. They also had more opportunities to create channels for communication between the old world and the new world. Religious and ethnic newspapers often contributed to this process.

The obituaries in these newspapers often provide abundant information not found in local newspapers. Ethnic newspapers often give flowery eulogies that include information about an ancestor's emigration, town of origin, marriage, spouse's maiden name, and children's names and location. If you are searching for a European town of origin to continue the ancestral line, this might be the only source containing that information.

Some early ethnic newspapers ran notices from immigrants and worried Europeans who were searching for relatives who had been "lost" since coming to America. These advertisements often gave personal descriptions, last-known addresses, and names and descriptions of spouse and children. Such notices can be helpful in connecting old-world families and can provide new leads to the town of origin. You can find interesting tidbits about an ancestor in lists of immigrants who had recently arrived in an area, advertisements for goods and services, announcements of weddings, births, and birthdays, letters to the editor, descriptions of ocean voyages, and societal affairs and gatherings. Membership lists, school news, biographical sketches, testimonials, and even pictures of individuals can be found with diligent work and some luck.

Some ethnic and religious newspapers are in the possession of current ethnic and religious organizations. Others have been preserved by local libraries, genealogical societies, and historical archives in the state or county where they were originally published. Some have been sent to special collections of a particular ethnic or religious group, such as the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, and the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture in Chicago. Others are now part of large collections, such as the Immigrant Archives at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and the Balch Institute in Philadelphia, both of which collect and preserve materials for all immigrant groups.

Indexes for many of these ethnic and religious newspapers have been created by the groups themselves and by local genealogical societies and can now be found in their repositories. Some indexes are in the hands of private individuals or groups. See chapter 12, "Newspapers," in The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1984) for a list of many of these indexes.