Springboard Spotlight
Making Newspaper Research Efficient through Newspaper Finder
Mitchell Lewis, CG®, went on the clock to become a board-certified genealogist while a college student and earned the credential while in graduate school – all amid the global pandemic. He’s currently finishing his Ph.D. in nuclear physics at The George Washington University. Between working on his family history and his dissertation, Mitchell somehow found the time to create an invaluable tool for anyone conducting online historical newspaper research.
In the spring of 2026 Mitchell and his co-founder, software developer Matthew Wheeler, launched Newspaper Finder, a searchable catalog of the holdings of thirty-four digitized newspaper databases, including Newspapers.com, GenealogyBank, and Chronicling America. Newspaper Finder’s collection can be filtered by database, range of years, country, and state. Perhaps the most impressive feature is Newspaper Finder’s use of geo-coordinating to place search results on an interactive map.
The user-friendly website is routinely updated as newspaper databases update their collections. New databases and new features are being developed to make the search capabilities even more robust. To recommend an online newspaper database for inclusion on the site, use the contact form.
Guest blogger Jenny Rizzo Irwin, CG®, AG®