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In 2024, MyHeritage launched OldNews, a digital newspaper archive that holds hundreds of millions of pages. In a reflection of MyHeritage’s international focus, OldNews has 12 language options: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese and Swedish.
The content here is indeed diverse—and growing—with an emphasis on European collections. Here’s how to find your ancestors in the publications.
1. Add Search Terms
Run a search on terms of interest, including keywords, a year, and the place. I would start with the city, and work outward to wider jurisdictions from there.
Unfortunately, you cannot see what newspaper collections are included in the database as of this writing, nor can you browse individual newspapers. My workaround trick is to run a search for a common word that you would expect to find in every paper from the place you’re researching. For example, I’ve run the Swedish word for day (dag) and Sweden to target Swedish-language newspapers.
You can also filter results by publication name (e.g., Dagbladet) or date. The drop-down for the former indicates how many results you have for each, making it easy to identify possible publications. A search field allows you to drill down the filter options even more, helpful when you don’t know the exact name of a publication.
Note that you can only enter a four-digit year for publication date, not a range of years. However, you can have the form return results within two, 10, or 20 years of that query. I’m told total coverage spans 1645 to 2019, with greatest strength for the 1800s and 1900s.
2. Review Your Results
Click a result to view a high-quality image of the relevant page. You have the option to print the page, download the page to your device, or review the transcription. MyHeritage created fresh transcriptions for this database (including English-language newspapers), which it says leads to greater search functionality even for newspapers that also appear online in other places.
You’ll need a paid subscription to view newspapers on OldNews. The site offers either a standalone OldNews subscription ($99/year), or a bundle with the main MyHeritage site (the Omni subscription, $399/year). You can take advantage of a seven-day free trial.
3. Add Records to Your Tree
In addition to making keyword searches more accurate, the transcriptions that MyHeritage has created for its newspapers are also being used to generate indexes on its main website. With a MyHeritage subscription, you can view the indexes, which have been cataloged by place. They also show up as Record Matches if you have a tree at MyHeritage.
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A version of this article appeared in the January/February 2025 issue of Family Tree Magazine.
