Local Historic Newspapers Now Available On Hoosier State Chronicles

Dive into local history or conduct genealogical research by browsing historic local newspapers on Hoosier State Chronicles.

The Syracuse-Turkey Creek Township Public Library and the Syracuse-Wawasee Historical Museum came together to successfully apply for the 2021 LSTA Technology Grant after limiting digitization to newspaper microfilms from the late 1800s through 1990 following an unsuccessful grant in 2020. To complete this project, both organizations received approval from Ron Baumgartner, the owner and publisher of The Papers Inc., which owns The Mail-Journal.

The LSTA Technology Grant came from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services and is administered by the Indiana State Library. SPL and the museum's microfilm digitalization project became the first of its kind in Kosciusko County.

How The Digitalization Process Worked

In October 2021, the Syracuse Public Library's microfilm was packed and sent to Digital Divide Data in Maryland. The vendor then scanned the microfilm through a high-speed feed scanner to produce the digitized pages into several formats. During the process, newspaper pages were cropped, de-skewed, and organized into folders. Following that, they were sent to another team, where metadata was created for each page, issue, and microfilm reel.

Once that process finished, the team at the Indiana State Library performed quality review on the work to catch minor issues, such as missing pages, duplicate pages, and incorrect labeling. Fixes were sent back to the vendor before final approval and the newspapers' inclusion on Hoosier State Chronicles.

What Was Digitized

Digitalized historic local newspapers include:

• Syracuse-Wawasee Journal
• The Indiana Journal
• The Mail-Journal
• The Syracuse and Lake Wawasee Journal
• The Syracuse Enterprise
• The Syracuse Journal
• The Syracuse Register

All of these historic newspapers are now available on the Hoosier State Chronicles website. Uncover headlines for national and local events, enjoy old advertisements, or retrace the steps of your ancestors. Users can also use the website's search feature to do targeted searches for family members. You never now what you will uncover!

The Hoosier State Chronicles's homepage features a map of Indiana counties. If you are looking for news from a particular county, you can just click it on the map or use the menu to navigate the site.

Hoosier State Chronicles allows targeted searches, which users can use to find ancestors. Here is an example search for "John Smith." Use quotation marks around names to refine your search and to prevent receiving results for simply "John" and "Smith."

On the search result page, you will find a sidebar. This sidebar offers several ways to refine search results to find ancestors. Know where they lived? Click on papers that would have been local to them. Know the periods they were alive? Click those decades. Don't forget to check the tags, which might have clues, such as a person you know is connected to your ancestor.