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Author: mindfoggs2
Surnames:
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.rhodeisland.unkn...
Message Board Post:
This gatewayed to my inbox via the RIGENWEB List.
At this point in time, archived issues of the major newspaper for RI, The Provicence
Journal formerly the Providence Journal & Journal bulletin in the days of both a
morning & evening edition, is no longer available online.
ProQuest, the company that carries archived newspapers around the US online, decided
unwisely to hit RI libraries with a double whammy at a point in time when no library could
financially handle it.
Whammy 1 - ProQuest decided to reduce the content included in the on line archived
editions specifically dropping, for one, the obits which so many researchers use.
Whammy 2 - The Recession has hit all RI libraries. The Providence Public Library, for one,
now only consists of the main library on Empire St. downtown Providence, having shed
it's branch libraries as of 1 July 2009 in order to survive. So, at a time when all
the libraries have seen their funding reduced, ProQuest decided to hit the RI Library
Consortium with a price increase, raising the cost for a year of the Providence Journal
archived editions on line to $80,000 for 1 year. The RI Library Consortium couldn't
afford it especially since they would have been getting less content for a higher price so
no more archived Providence Journal on line.
You might try contacting the RI State Archives. They are short staffed but can do a
limited look-up, most usually two items per request. At the least you might establish if
the person you are looking for was alive past 1958 by asking for a death look-up. Deaths
up to and including 1958 will be at the Archives.
Rhode Island State Archives
337 Westminster Street
Providence, Rhode Island 02903
Telephone: (401) 222-2353
Fax: (401) 222-3199
Email: reference(a)sec.state.ri.us
Web:
www.state.ri.us/archives/ ~~website is poorly designed and pretty much useless from a
genealogy point of view.
Open to the public Monday-Friday 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
If you post the person's name, spouse's name, children's names,
individuals' birth years approximate or actual & locations of birth and anything
else you know, someone might be able to find something on Ancestry.
One of the things Ancestry does have are city directories for the various cities &
towns. Not all years are covered and not all municipalities have the same scope of years
covered but you could get lucky.
People might also be able to check the trees at Ancestry for some matches if they have all
the names associated with the person you're looking for.
The only thing the Providence Public Library / Reference Services would be able to help
you with would be an obit IF you had a month and year for a death & the obit appeared
in the Providence Journal which the PPL has on microfilm back to issue 1 in the
1800's.
Providence Public Library Reference Services
150 Empire Street
Providence, Rhode Island 02903
Phone:401-455-8005.
Main number is 401-455-8000.
http://www.provlib.org/default.html
Email at pplref(a)provlib.org
Hopefully, ProQuest will come to it's senses, lower the price and reinstate the
content they were planning to take out because at present, without the power of a search
engine, hunting in the Providence Journal archived editions by hand on the microfilms
would be next to impossible.
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