How do I search historical newspapers on Findmypast?

When it comes to tracing your family tree, newspaper archives are a resource like no other. They reveal the daily lives of your ancestors and every kind of family story you could imagine.

To access Findmypast's historical newspapers, select 'Search' and then 'Newspapers and Periodicals' from the site menu when logged in. You'll be taken to our newspaper search where you can choose a collection and filter your search by date, access type location, newspaper title and article type.

Free-to-view newspapers

As part of our pledge to make family history more accessible for everyone, we’ve made over a million newspaper pages completely free to search and view in partnership with the British Library.

To explore our free newspaper archives, simply select ‘Free To View’ from the ‘By Access Type’ filter. To view our free papers, you won’t need a paid subscription but you’ll need to be signed up to Findmypast. 

Searching and viewing newspapers

Begin by searching for a name or keyword and gradually narrow your results using the relevant filters. When you select a newspaper page to view, we'll make the details you're looking for easy to find on the page by automatically zooming in on the relevant article and highlighting your search terms.

To see a full list of newspaper titles included in a collection, select the 'By Newspaper' filter. We add new pages to our archive every week on Findmypast Friday.

Saving and printing newspapers

To save a newspaper page, select the 'Download Page' button when viewing an article.

If you want to save just a snippet from the page, most devices have some handy snipping tools to help. You can use these tools to capture the part of the page you want to keep, either directly from the image viewer online or from the page after you've downloaded it.

To print a newspaper page, select the 'Print Page' button when viewing an article and follow the instructions based on the device you're using.