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I realized how important old newspapers are to genealogy when I stumbled across this
1924 article about my grandfather on GenealogyBank:

What a find! The article has so much “what was he like?” detail that I wouldn’t have
found elsewhere. So I wanted to share some resources from contributing editor Rick
Crume’s November
2011 Family Tree Magazine cover story on researching ancestors in online
newspapers. 

In the article, Rick provides a chart with the essentials on 15 large online historical
newspaper collections—some free, some by subscription or with society memberships,
some available through libraries—including:

• 19th
  Century US Newspapers
  
• Accessible Archives 
• Ancestry.com
  
• Chronicling America 
• Early American Newspapers, Series 1, 1690-1876
• Footnote.com
• GenealogyBank 
• Google News and News
  Archive 
• New York Times Archive 
• NewspaperArchive 
• Old Fulton NY Post Cards  
• Paper of Record  
• Proquest Archiver 
  
• SmallTownPapers 
• World Vital Records 

He also notes where the sites’ collections overlap, and offers some advice on finding
other, smaller collections of newspapers:

• Your public library might provide online access to newspaper databases or have historical
  papers on microfilm. Check at the reference desk.

• Portals that can link you to more online newspaper archives include Cyndi’s
  List, Free Newspaper
  Archives, Online
  Historical Newspapers and XooxleAnswers:
  Newspaper Archives.
  

• Search the Library of Congress Chronicling
  America newspaper directory for microfilmed papers you can order via interlibrary
  loan.

• Surf websites
  of state archives for their newspaper holdings, which may be available for loan
  to your local library.

The November
2011 Family Tree Magazine also has articles on using published family histories,
researching English roots, finding cultural and ethnic heritage organizations, tracing
ancestors in Chicago and Portland, Ore., using Mocavo.com and more. The issue hits
newsstands next week, but you
can order it now from ShopFamilyTree.com. 

For even more help finding ancestors in old newspapers, check out Family
Tree University’s Newspaper Research 101 class.