Michigan Online Historical Newspapers Summary

Michigan is one of the states that has a couple of central online repositories for searching historical newspapers. Several states use the Library of Congress Chronicling America site as their main central online site for searching old newspapers and the state makes use of this site as well. The online newspaper titles are also available from several different sites, many free, and many require a subscription. Below is a list of where the titles are stored and the link so that you can access them. 

There are around 4,000 newspapers that have been published in the Wolverine State – certainly not all of them are searchable online. But there are quite a few that are indeed available. So go for it – find your Michigan ancestors and all the interesting articles that capture the stories of their lives. 

Please note that I have not always entered the dates that are included in the collections, as I suspect they will change as more items are digitized. Also, I suspect that some of these links may change over time – so if there is a dead link – please use your favorite search engine to find their new location. 

(Updated July 2023; recently added links are in BOLD)

Michigan Historical Newspapers

Free Sites:

Statewide Collections:

Chronicling America – Michigan

Google News Archive

Digital Michigan Newspapers

Michigan Digital Newspaper Portal (By County)

County and Library Collections:

Aitkin Memorial District Library

  • Croswell Jeffersonian
  • Sanilac County Jeffersonian
  • Sanilac County Jeffersonian/Advisor
  • Sanilac Jeffersonian
  • Sanilac Jeffersonian and the Sanilac County Times

Allegan District Library

  • Allegan County News and Gazette (1966-1994)
  • Allegan County’s Chamber & Business News (1999-2001)
  • Allegan Democrat (1896)
  • Allegan Gazette (1882-1949)
  • Allegan Journal and Tribune (1883-1888)
  • Allegan Journal (1856-1897)
  • The Allegan County News (1994-2018)
  • The Allegan News-Gazette (1955-1964)
  • The Allegan Press (1906)
  • The Allegan News (1901-1955)
  • The Daily Gazette (1888)
  • The Kalamazoo Gazette (1963-1963)

Alma College

  • Almanian
  • The Weekly Almanian

Ann Arbor District Library Historic Newspapers

Bad Axe District Library

  • Huron County Tribune (1909-1925) Free
  • Huron Tribune and Huron County Gazette (1883-1884) Free
  • The Bad Axe Democrat (1885-1891) Free
  • The Bad Axe Weekly Republican (1899) Free
  • The Huron County Republican (1901-1902) Free
  • The Huron Tribune and The Huron County Republican (1903-1905) Free
  • The Huron Tribune (1881-1909) Free

Benzie Shores District Library

  • Benzie Banner
  • Benzie County Patriot
  • Benzie Record
  • Benzie Record Patriot
  • Benzonia Citizen
  • Elberta Alert
  • Frankfort Express
  • Frankfort Times
  • South Frankfort Alert

Buchanan District Library

  • Berrien County Record
  • Buchanan Argus
  • Buchanan Banner
  • Buchanan News
  • Buchanan Reporter
  • Buchanan Weekly Union
  • Michigan Independent

Canton Public Library

  • Canton Observer & Eccentric (1974-1976)
  • Canton Observer (1976-2017)

Caro Area District Library

  • The Tuscola Advertiser (1868-1879)
  • Tuscola County Advertiser (1868-2018)

Cass City Newspapers

Crawford County Library

Dearborn Public Library

Flat River Community Library

  • Greenville Daily News (1927-1949) 
  • Independent Daily News (1924-1927) 
  • The Daily News and Belding Banner (1974-1977) 
  • The Daily News (1949-2009) 

Flemish Library

  • Gazette Van Detroit

Jordan Valley District Library

  • Boyne Area And East Jordan Observer 2009-04-08 Thru 2009-07-01
  • Boyne Citizen 1952-06-19 Thru 1952-10-09
  • Charlevoix County Herald 1902-05-23 Thru 1953-07-24
  • Charlevoix County News 2009-06-18 Thru Present
  • Charlevoix County Press 1977-04-07 Thru 1991-12-25
  • Charlevoix County Press 1993-03-03 Thru 1993-03-09
  • Charlevoix County Press 1993-12-15 Thru 1993-12-21
  • East Jordan Journal 1993-11-24 Thru 1998-04-22
  • East Jordan News-Herald 1953-01-31 Thru 1967-03-30
  • East Jordan News-Herald 1955-01-06 Thru 1962-12-27
  • East Jordan Public Schools Newsletter August 1977
  • East Jordan Swan City Express July-August
  • Jordan Journal 1998-04-29 Thru 2001-11-28
  • Northland Press 1969-05-15 Thru 1972-07-17
  • Oakland Press Metro 1992-05-17
  • Petoskey News-Review 1972-05-25
  • The Citizen-Journal 2001-12-05 Thru 2009-01-28
  • The East Jordan News 1952-10-02 Thru 1953-07-23
  • The Torch And East Jordan Journal 1992-11-11 Thru 1993-11-17

Chelsea District Library Newspaper Archives 

  • Chelsea Standard
  • The Chelsea Herald
  • The Chelsea Standard
  • Chelsea Standard-Herald
  • The Chelsea Tribune
  • The Dexter Leader
  • The Sun Times News
  • Washtenaw Now

Coloma Public Library Newspaper Archives

  • Coloma Courier
  • Watervliet Record
  • Tri-City Record

Delta College Collegiate

  • Delta Collegiate

Concord News

  • The Concord News
  • Concord Independent
  • The Concord News And Jackson County Legal News

Escanaba Public Library

Farmington Community Library

  • Farmington Enterprise (1888-1967)
  • Farmington Observer & Eccentric (1974)
  • Farmington Observer (1976-2019)
  • The Farmington Enterprise and Observer (1967-1974)
  • The Observer of Farmington (1967)

Flat River Community Library

Grand Ledge District Library

  • Grand Ledge Independent 
  • Grand Ledge News

Grand Rapids Public Library

  • Grand Rapids CIO News
  • Grand Valley AFL CIO News
  • Grand Valley Labor News
  • Work In Progress

Greenwood Cemetery (Petoskey) Newspaper Archives

  • Emmet County Democrat (1875-1876) Free
  • Emmet County Graphic (1931-1959) Free
  • Emmet County Independent (1881-1882) Free
  • Harbor Springs Graphic (1895-1896) Free
  • Levering Local (1915-1916) Free
  • Little Traverse Republican (1877) Free
  • Petoskey City Record (1878-1883) Free
  • Petoskey City Weekly Times (1874) Free
  • Petoskey News-Review (1954-2019) Free
  • The Daily Resorter (Harbor Springs) (1883-1885) Free
  • The Daily Resorter (Petoskey) (1887-1896) Free
  • The Independent Democrat (1875-1903) Free
  • The Northern Independent (1882-1886) Free
  • The Pellston Journal (1903-1915) Free
  • The Petoskey Evening News and Daily Resorter (1906-1954) Free
  • The Petoskey Independent (1906-1913) Free

Grosse Pointe Newspapers

  • Grosse Pointe News
  • Grosse Pointe Review
  • Grosse Pointe Civic News

Harbor Beach Area District Library

  • Harbor Beach Times
  • Huron County News
  • Huron Times
  • Sand Beach Times
  • Times Harbor Beach Edition

Ironwood Carnegie Library Newspaper Archives

Kalamazoo Public Library Historic Newspapers

  • Allegan County Record
  • Augusta Beacon
  • Climax Cereal
  • Climax Crescent
  • Evening Telegraph
  • Kalamazoo Daily Telegraph
  • Kalamazoo Evening Telegraph
  • Kalamazoo Telegraph-Press
  • Kalamazoo Weekly Telegraph
  • Michigan Telegraph
  • Kalamazoo Shopper
  • Kalamazoo Telegraph
  • Kalamazoo Weekly News and Shopper
  • Otsego Union
  • Parchment Journal
  • Parchment News
  • Scotts Cereal
  • Semi-Weekly Argus
  • The Argus
  • The Galesburg Argus
  • The Horizon News
  • The Independent
  • The Kalamazoo Gazette
  • The Kalamazoo Gazette Weekly
  • The Progressive Herald
  • The Weekly Union

Kalkaska County Library

  • The Kalkaska Leader and The Kalkaskian (1910-1926)
  • The Kalkaska Leader (1879-1910)
  • The Kalkaskian (1898-1910)
  • The Leader and The Kalkaskian (1926-2012)

Kent District Library

  • Ledger Suburban Life
  • Lowell Journal
  • Lowell Ledger
  • Lowell Ledger Suburban Life
  • Lowell Weekly Journal
  • The Grand Valley Ledger

State Line Observer

  • The Morenci Observer
  • State Line Observer
  • Morenci Observer

Marlette District Library

  • Marlette Index
  • Marlette Leader

Michigan Community Home Papers

Munising School Public Library (in library)

  • Alger County Democrat
  • Alger County Independent
  • Alger County Republican
  • Cloverland Farmer
  • Gazette
  • Grand Marais Herald
  • Grand Marais Pilot and Pictured Rocks Review
  • Lake Superior Breeze
  • Lake Superior Pilot
  • Munising News
  • Munising Republican
  • Wrights Weekly
  • Yearbook

Niles Library

North Branch Township Library

  • North Branch Gazette
  • Weekly Gazette
  • The Brown City Banner
  • Sanilac County Press
  • The County Press
  • Peck Press
  • The North Branch News

Nottawa

  • The Western Chronicle
  • The St. Joseph County Observer
  • The Centreville Observer

Oakland County Historic Newspapers

  • Clarkston Advertiser
  • Clarkston Eccentric
  • Clarkston News
  • Clarkston Record
  • Lake Orion News
  • Oakland County Advertiser
  • Orion Review
  • Rochester Eccentric
  • Rochester Era
  • The Novi News
  • The Reminder

Otsego County Library Digital Archives

  • Herald Times

Otsego County Library

  • Gaylord Herald Times
  • Gaylord Herald Times
  • Herald Times (1970)
  • Herald Times (1976)
  • Northern Michigan Herald Times
  • Otsego County Herald
  • Otsego County Herald and Times
  • Otsego County Herald Times (1925)
  • Otsego County Herald Times (1970)
  • Otsego County Times

Plymouth District Library

  • Plymouth Community Crier (1974)
  • Plymouth Mail (1887-1967)
  • Plymouth Observer and Eccentric (1974-1975)
  • Plymouth Observer (1983-2016)
  • The Community Crier (1976-1998)
  • The Livonian Observer Plymouth Edition (1962)
  • The Livonian Plymouth Edition (1961-1962)
  • The Livonian (1962)
  • The Observer of Plymouth (1962-1967)
  • The Observer (1962)
  • The Plymouth Mail and Observer (1967-1974)

Pontiac Public Library

  • Pontiac Herald
  • The Pontiac News

Redford Archives

  • The Redford Observer (1955-2017) Free
  • The Redford Township News (1968-1971) Free
  • The Suburban News (1971-1990) Free
  • The Township News North End Edition (1967-1968) Free
  • The Township News (1963-1968) Free

 River Rapids Library

  • Chesaning Argus
  • Chesaning Argus (1877)
  • Chesaning Semi-Weekly Argus
  • Chesaning Weekly Argus
  • Chesaning-Montrose Argus
  • Courier
  • Saginaw Valley Advertiser
  • Saginaw Valley News
  • Saginaw Valley Weekly News
  • The Tri-County Citizen
  • Tri-County Citizen

Royal Oak Public Library Digital Archive

  • Daily Tribune (1925-2019)
  • The Berkley Tribune (1923-1924)
  • The Clawson Tribune (1923-1925)
  • The Experiment (1877)
  • The Hazel Park Tribune (1924-1925)
  • The Royal Oak Midget (1879)
  • The Royal Oak Tribune (1908-1925)

Romulus Public Library Historic Newspapers

  • Romulus Roman
  • The Romulus News
  • The Little Paper
  • The Huron River Weekly
  • The Huron News
  • The Huron Highlighter
  • The Eagle and Enterprise

Sandusky District Library

  • Brown City Banner
  • Brown City Bee
  • Carsonville – Port Sanilac Journal
  • Carsonville Journal
  • Carsonville News
  • Croswell Jeffersonian
  • Deckerville Recorder
  • Goderich Signal Star
  • Lex Minuteman
  • Lexington News
  • Marlette Leader
  • Melvin Banner
  • Minden City Herald
  • Sandusky Republican Tribune
  • Sandusky Tribune
  • Sanilac County Farmer
  • Sanilac County Herald
  • Sanilac County News
  • Sanilac County Press
  • Sanilac County Republican
  • Sanilac County Searchlight
  • Sanilac County Times
  • Sanilac Jeffersonian
  • Sanilac Recorder
  • Sanilac Republican
  • Times Herald
  • Tuscola County Advertiser

Shelby Area District Library

  • Oceanas Herald Journal
  • Oceana Herald
  • Shelby Independent
  • Shelby Herald

Traverse Area District Library

  • The Morning Record
  • Honest Opinion
  • The Evening Record
  • The Daily Eagle
  • Traverse City Press
  • Traverse Bay Eagle
  • Grand Traverse Press
  • Grand Traverse Herald Newspaper

White Cloud Community Library

  • Times Indicator
  • Fremont Times Indicator

White Lake Community Library

Willard Library – Chronicling Battle Creek

Student Collections:

Ann Arbor Pioneer High School – Ann Arbor

Central Michigan University – Mount Pleasant

Eastern Michigan University – Ypsilanti

Ferris State University – Big Rapids

Grand Valley State University – Allendale

Hillsdale College – Hillsdale

Hope College – Holland

Kalamazoo College – Kalamazoo

Mercy College – Detroit

Mercy High School – Farmington Hills

Michigan State University – East Lansing

Northern Michigan University – Marquette

Oakland University – Rochester

Plymouth-Canton Educational Park

Saginaw Valley State University – University Center

Saugatuck High School

University of Michigan – Ann Arbor

University of Michigan Law School – Ann Arbor

University of Michigan – Dearborn

Washtenaw Community College – Washtenaw

Wayne State University – Detroit

Western Michigan University – Kalamazoo

Miscellaneous Collections and Indexes:

Upper Peninsula Digital Network

Independent Voices – Alternative Newspapers

  • Ann Arbor Argus
  • Ann Arbor Sun
  • Bogue Street Bridge
  • Broken Arrow
  • Burning Deck
  • Detroit Gay Liberator
  • Detroit Liberator
  • ETA – eat the apple
  • Fifth Estate
  • First Amendment
  • FPS: a Magazine of Young People’s Liberation
  • Free Poems Among Friends
  • Gay Liberator
  • Generation East Lansing
  • Goob Yeak Gergibal
  • Her-self
  • Highschool Mobilizer Against the War in Vietnam
  • IO Magazine
  • Joint Issue
  • Lansing Beat
  • Lansing Star
  • Lesbian Connection
  • Logos
  • Paper, The
  • People Voice
  • Peoples Peace Treaty Newsletter
  • Red Apple News
  • Root, The
  • Spectacle, The
  • Spectre
  • Squeak, The
  • Sumac
  • Sun (Detroit)
  • Swill & Squeal
  • Veterans Peace Offensive
  • Work
  • Zeitgeist

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Newspapers 1933-1942

Small Town Papers

Old Fulton Postcards

Newspaper Abstracts – Michigan

For Obituary Indexes, transcriptions, and other death/obituary information from historic newspapers, please check out the Obituaries page.

Other Free Sites:

Battle Creek

Belleville

Birmingham

Brimley

Cadillac

Camden

Canton

Cedar Springs

Charlevoix

Coopersville

Dearborn

Detroit

    Frankenmuth

    Gobles

    Grand Rapids

    Grayling

    Hartford

    Holland

    Hudsonville

    Kalkaska

    Lake Orion

    Lansing

    Manchester

    Marquette

    Mayville

    Middleville

    Mt. Pleasant

    Northville

    Owosso

    Pigeon

    Pinckney

    Plainwell

    Romulus

    Royal Oak

    Saugatuck

    Sault Ste. Marie

    Schoolcraft

    South Lyon

    St. Johns

    Tawas City

    Tecumseh

    Weidman

    Subscription or Pay Sites:

    Ancestry.com:

    There are currently 37 publications available on this site. See all the titles at Ancestry – Michigan Newspapers

    Genealogy Bank:

    There are currently 239 publications available on this site. See all the titles at Genealogy Bank – Michigan Newspapers

    Newspaper Archive:

    There are currently 181 publications available on this site. See all the titles at Newspaper Archive – Michigan

    Newspapers.com:

    There are currently 113 publications available on this site. See all the titles at Newspapers.com – Michigan 

    And Finally:

    You also need to check out the Library of Michigan site, which can tell you what newspapers have been digitized and are available via microfilm.

    Please note – even more may be available via a local library where a library card is required. And of course, there is always microfilm for those that have not been made available online as yet.

    For more links for different states, provinces, and countries – please see the Newspaper Links page on this website.


    For all Free Michigan Collection Links in 24 Genealogy Categories, go to the By Location Page, click on Michigan, and then click on the category of interest.

    Good Luck and Happy Hunting!

    9 replies on “Michigan Online Historical Newspapers Summary”

    The Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University has some Reed City newspapers on microfilm you are welcome to stop in and look through them.

    I have a correction – Livingston County has mistakenly been included under Lenawee County – and Pinckney has been mispelled.
    Thanks for such a great site!

    Hello – I am looking for issues of the THE CLARE PRESS, for 1888 and 1889, and note that the issues I can find on various online sites cover the years [7 May 1886 – 13 May 1887 (31 issues)]. I found a reference to my ancestor in the 9 Apr 1886 issue. She died between then and 1890 and am hoping to find an obituary for her. Do you know if the other issues of this newspaper exist in other formats, not online? Thank you!

    I can’t find any record here of newspapers from Traverse City, MI. Are they in a different place?

    Have you tried the Traverse Area District Library, which is listed in the article and has Traverse City newspaper titles ?

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