Use the new combined search.

• Kingston Newspapers, 1833-1890: Transcripts from the marine news items of several Kingston newspapers by Rick Neilson (now merged into main newspaper search.)
• Digital Kingston: including index to early Kingston newspapers and digital files
• Oswego Newspaper Index (1839-1855+): General local newspaper index
• Maritime Wisconsin Newspaper Database Project starts with the Door County Advocate , 22 March 1862 to 29 December 1949.

Notes on sources

The newspaper transcriptions currently run to over 15,000 items, most of them dating from the nineteenth century. Just over 10,000 of the entries represent a combing of the Kingston papers by Rick Neilson, and represent "issues" rather than individual articles. Consequently a succession of stories may appear in a single entry in the database. Rick's methods include an indentification of missing issues and issues with no maritime content. These appear at the bottom of the previous issue with content. In most cases the full story has been transcribed, but for some papers in some periods there is only an indication that the content exists.

The balance of the articles have been supplied by Richard Palmer, Dave Swayze, Peter Warwick, Bill Hester, Randy Johnson, Walter Lewis and William R. McNeil. And there have been others. The vast bulk of Bill McNeil's transcriptions can be found in two other data sets that didn't easily fit within the framework of the newspaper database. Using the Search you can also draw together almost all the resources on the site.

What follows are some notes on individual sources:

Chronicle & Gazette (Kingston )

The Kingston Chronicle & Gazette was more properly known as the "Chronicle & Gazette and Weekly Commercial Advertiser", after 29 June 1833. After 1835 it was generally a semi-weekly publication. The volume numbering was in sequence with the Kingston Chronicle, so the first issue under the new masthead was v. XV, no. 1.

The microfilm of this paper is fairly widely held, including the Stauffer Library at Queen's University and the central branch of the Kingston-Frontenac Public Library. After 1845, and where noted the index was created from the originals at Queen's University Special Collections. Occasionally other newspapers have been consulted and their quotations from the files of the Chronicle included here.

Daily News (Kingston)

Microfilm of the Daily News is generally available at the Stauffer Library, Queen's Library.

8 Oct to 31 Dec 1855 was indexed from the originals in Special Collections at Queen's University. The same was true of 1 Oct to 31 Dec 1858. The Daily News for Jan. to Oct. 1859 has apparently not survived, but the Weekly Chronicle & News has. Originals may be found at Queen's University, Special Collections. 1866 is available at the Library and Archives Canada on reel N-9341; N-9342 starts at Oct. 16, 1866. Jan. 1, 1870 to Oct. 7, 1870 is missing. The first part of 1875 is not available on microfilm and apparently hasn't survived.

When (mixed cargo) appears under "Customs Imports" (or as abbreviated (C.I.) this indicates that the complete cargo listing as given in the newspaper was considered too detailed for the purposes of this data base. The regular arrival of the ferry boats Maud, Pierrepont and Watertown are not considered important to the purposes of this data-base and will only be noted until end of April to indicate start of navigation season.

British Whig (Kingston)

Gaps in survival of the Whig include the following. The Daily Whig for Jan. 1-13, 1881 is missing on microfilm. The Daily Whig has only survived for the first 6 months of 1885. For the second half of the year the Weekly Whig was used, both from microfilm and from originals at Queen's University - Special Collections. Articles from Weekly Whig for January and March 1890 were included to fill in where gaps in daily exist. Microfilm for the Daily Whig starts on Feb. 3rd, and March 9th to 25th is also missing.

W.W. stands for "Wind Wafts," a column frequently found in the Whig.