Tennessee, U.S., Newspapers.com™ Stories and Events Index

General collection information

This index allows you to search for your ancestor by name in Tennessee newspapers that are available on Newspapers.com™ from the 1800s to the present. Not all newspapers from the state of Tennessee are included. Links to the newspaper article in which your ancestor's name was found are included in the index.

Using this collection

The index may include the following information:

Historic newspapers can offer a wealth of information to add to your family history. Newspapers publish birth, marriage, and death announcements that can provide the vital dates of your ancestor's life.

They also reported on important events and happenings in the local community. Newspapers covered everything from local sports teams, school and community events, to local politics and the stories of everyday people in the community. Even if your ancestor's name doesn't appear in a newspaper, you could discover what life was like in their community during the time they lived there by reading newspaper articles.

Newspapers also published articles about negative events and difficult topics. You may find articles that state that your ancestor was a victim of a crime, or that they committed a crime or was involved in a political scandal.

Collection in context

The newspapers that are included in this index were produced by journalists working throughout Tennessee. Newspapers are highly valuable primary historical sources, which contain the biases of the author. They also contain the terminology of the times and may include offensive or obsolete language. They typically provide the most depth and breadth of information that can be found about the community where they are published. Articles may show up across many sources and states if they were syndicated by groups like the Associated Press.

Newspapers in the United States were often published by political parties and mercantile enterprises until the 1830s, when entrepreneurs began publishing newspapers that they sold for a penny to mass audiences in large cities. The newspaper followed as the United States population grew and the country expanded west during the late 1800s. Between the 1850 and 1880 U.S. Censuses, the number of newspapers increased 350 percent, rising to more than 11,400 publications. From the late 1800s to the early 20th century, technology impacted newspaper production with faster presses, linotype machines that mechanized typesetting, and a process that allowed photographs to be printed.

The Knoxville Gazette was the first newspaper published in Tennessee in 1791, about five years before Tennessee became the 16th state of the union. Beginning in 1819, Tennessee was home to several newspapers that advocated for the abolition of slavery. The Cherokee Phoenix was the first Native American newspaper in Tennessee in 1828, although it was published in northern Georgia.

During the American Civil War, three Tennessee newspapers fled the state to avoid closure by the Union Army and were published in Atlanta during the war. The first Black-owned newspaper, the Colored Tennessean, was established in April 1865 as the American Civil War came to an end. During the 1890s, famous African American journalist Ida B. Wells took up the fight against the lynching of Black people in the South while writing for the Memphis Free Speech, which forced her to move from Memphis to Chicago.

Bibliography

Fogarty, Billie Stone. "Finding & Using Historic Newspapers in Genealogical Research." Family Search. Accessed August 8, 2022. https://familysearch.brightspotcdn.com/3c/40/c9155b33c17a4e80fda5e2264765/course-handout.pdf.

Himebaugh, Glenn A. "Publishing." Tennessee Encyclopedia. Accessed October 3, 2022. https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/publishing/.

The Family History Guide Blog. "Inside the Guide: Using Newspapers for Family History Research." Accessed August 8, 2022. https://www.thefhguide.com/blog/inside-the-guide-using-newspapers-for-family-history-research/.