Minnesota newspapers

Researching family history often relies on newspapers to understand the life and times of our ancestors. Minnesota Territory's Governor Alexander Ramsey knew that, calling them "the day books of history."

Having full issues of Minnesota newspapers in the future is threatened by cutbacks in funding at the Minnesota Historical Society, which has microfilmed them since 1948. For a couple of good articles check the Chaska Herald and MinnPost takes on the situation.

Access on-line is marvelous, but we've all had situations where the content we saw on-line a couple of days or weeks ago is now gone. Preservation is a more staid necessity: if something isn't preserved, it can never be accessed. And just check out on-line versions of the 'same' paper -- they really aren't identical. Some of the best stuff for genealogists is missing.

As a family historian, my wish for Santa is to preserve all Minnesota's newspapers in a way that isn't dependent on electricity, so that our children and grandchildren will have access.

Mary