Newspapers.Com: An Amazing Gift

Our new, wonderful friends, David and Gayle Woodruff, are historians and authors. When they visited for an afternoon, they gifted us with a link to the past that is absolutely incredible... a subscription to Newspapers.com.

"Newspapers.com™ is the largest online newspaper archive consisting of one billion+ pages of historical newspapers from 29,800+ newspapers from around the United States and beyond. Newspapers provide a unique view of the past and can help us understand and connect with the people, events and attitudes of an earlier time."

I was born a grandparent orphan, never knowing any of them. Now, as a grandmother, I have wondered about the various branches on our family tree. Today, because of the Woodruffs, I had the opportunity to meet my paternal grandfather, Raymond James Saffell. Sadly, I learned the details of his untimely death, headlined on the front page of the May 7, 1944 Des Moines Sunday Register. Through the articles, I gathered more information about my family, too.

What a gift they have bestowed. To me, this shows just how important newspapers are. I agree with Henry Steel Commager who said, “This is what really happened, reported by a free press to a free people.  It is the raw material of history; it is the story of our own times." Wow.