Do you have a favorite digital newspaper archive?
For me, that archive is Newspapers.com. It is usually the first place I search when looking for obituaries, marriage announcements, local news, or those small details that help tell an ancestor’s story.
But no single newspaper site has everything.
Recently, while looking for information about Wells Finch Rupert, I almost forgot that lesson.
I had been researching the Rupert family as part of my ongoing effort to understand connections among the Rupert, Finch, and Hutchinson families. Wells Finch Rupert was especially interesting because his very name pointed toward a family connection: he was the son of William Augustus Rupert and Eliza Finch.
My usual instinct was to search Newspapers.com. Then I remembered that many historic newspapers are available elsewhere—sometimes completely free.
Turning to The Ancestor Hunt
One of my favorite tools for locating digitized newspapers is The Ancestor Hunt.
The site does not simply point researchers toward one newspaper collection. Instead, its state-by-state lists bring together links to newspapers found across many different platforms, including:
- Google News Archive
- Chronicling America
- state and local digital collections
- university collections
- library newspaper projects
- Advantage Archives collections
- other free online repositories
That makes The Ancestor Hunt especially valuable when a newspaper is not available on one of the large subscription sites.
Since I was researching someone who lived in Iowa, I turned to the site’s list of Iowa Online Historical Newspapers. From there, I was able to locate the Telegraph Herald of Dubuque and find an obituary for Wells Finch Rupert in a digitized newspaper available through Google News.
And that obituary contained exactly the kind of information I was hoping to find.
Death Takes W. F. Rupert, Dean of Bar
The Telegraph Herald
Dubuque, Iowa
6 January 1942
Page 12
Available on Google News
Transcription
Death Takes W. F. Rupert, Dean of Bar
Wells Finch Rupert, 82, lawyer and dean of the Dubuque bar, died at his home, 1129 Langworthy, at 5 o’clock Monday night following a lingering illness.
The body is at the Haudenshield funeral home, 2170 Central Avenue, and funeral arrangements have not been completed pending arrival of a son from Des Moines. Burial will be made in Linwood Cemetery.
Mr. Rupert, son of the late William Augustus and Eliza Finch Rupert, pioneer residents, was born in Dubuque, Sept. 26, 1859, and spent his entire life here. He was educated in the Dubuque schools and was graduated from the Law College of Harvard University in 1879.
He entered the law firm of Shiras, Van Duzee, and Henderson after completing his college training and was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1881. He practiced law professionally here for 60 years and at the time of his death was dean of Dubuque attorneys in point of years and service.
Mr. Rupert was a member of the Dubuque lodge of Elks and had served as tyler for the last 17 years. He was also a member of the Dubuque County Bar Association. He married Miss Vera Barbara Dausener on June 9, 1887.
Surviving are his wife, two sons, Wells Finch Rupert, Jr., Des Moines, and Karl Conover Rupert, Boulder, Colo.; and three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Members of the Dubuque County Bar Association were scheduled to meet in the north court room at the county courthouse Tuesday afternoon for eulogies and for the adoption of resolutions.
Why This Obituary Matters
For my research, one sentence immediately stood out:
“Mr. Rupert, son of the late William Augustus and Eliza Finch Rupert, pioneer residents…”
That statement directly identifies Wells Finch Rupert’s parents.
The obituary also provides a remarkable amount of biographical detail. It tells me that Wells:
- was born in Dubuque on 26 September 1859;
- spent his entire life there;
- attended Harvard Law College;
- was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1881;
- practiced law for 60 years;
- married Vera Barbara Dausener on 9 June 1887;
- had two surviving sons, Wells Finch Rupert Jr. and Karl Conover Rupert; and
- was buried in Linwood Cemetery.
For someone trying to reconstruct a family and understand its relationships, that is a valuable collection of clues from a single newspaper article.
The Bigger Lesson
This search was also a reminder to me: don’t stop with a favorite newspaper archive.
Newspapers.com may be my first stop, but it should not always be my last.
A needed newspaper might be hiding in Google News. Or Chronicling America. Or a state digital collection. Or a small library project. Or an Advantage Archives site that I did not know existed.
That is why The Ancestor Hunt is such a useful part of my genealogy toolbox. Instead of trying to remember every newspaper archive—or hoping that a general Google search will find the right collection—I can start with a curated list of online newspapers for the state I am researching.
In this case, that simple step led me to an obituary that not only documented the life of Wells Finch Rupert but also strengthened my understanding of the Rupert and Finch families.
Sometimes the record we need is already online.
We just need help finding where it is online.