Newspaper Index for Newark, New Jersey 1872-1901

We have an index for deaths and marriages in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey newspapers covering the years 1872-1901.

This newly released database is thanks to the New Jersey Records Preservation Group and volunteers.

The newspapers are Newark Sunday Call and Newark Evening News. You can view these papers for free online at the Newark History Archives website through the Newark Public Library.

You can search for terms or names that appear anywhere in the newspapers via the Newark History Archives website. Words are found thanks to OCR, or Optical Character Recognition. This technology is invaluable for capturing text in scanned documents; however, misreadings are commonplace. Blemishes on the page obscure accurate captures of words. Letters that look alike, such as a and u, b and h, become intertwined.

The advantage of this new index from NJRPG is that it was created by humans reading through the notices of deaths and marriages and typing them.

We'll look at an example using Vanderhoof, since that has been a name of recent concentration in my research.

Results of "Vanderhoof" in newspapers at NJRPG

Emma L Knox, born Vanderhoof, was listed in the death notices of the Newark Evening News on February 3, 1888 and the Newark Sunday Call on February 5, 1888.

If we go to the Newark History Archives website and type in "Vanderhoof" for this time frame, there are no results.

Results for the search term "Vanderhoof."
None were found by OCR, in spite of the word appearing in the newspapers on these dates.

If we search for "Knox," we get one listing for February 5, 1888 and none for February 3, 1888.

Results for the search term "Knox." Most words are garbled because of OCR readings.

This is the listing for February 5:

Death listing in the Newark Sunday Call for Emma L Knox, wife of Andrew G Knox,
daughter of John and Jane Vanderhoof. Aged 39 years, 4 months, and 18 days.
Burial at Fairmount Cemetery in Newark.

Thanks to the index of NJRPG, we know to also look at February 3.

Death Listings in the Newark Evening News February 3, 1888

Although readable, the scan from February 3 is not as clear. Perhaps this is why neither surname appeared in the search at the Newark History Archives website.

The website of New Jersey Records Preservation Group also has an index of people interred in certain cemeteries in Newark. More resources are in the works, such as funeral home records.