US Records · Newspaper OCR search
Digitized newspaper search depends on OCR, software that guesses the words printed on a scanned page. Small type, damaged paper and Polish diacritics produce errors, so a perfect surname search can miss the exact notice you need.
Why Polish names fail in OCR
Columns may be crooked, letters may touch and older typefaces make combinations such as rn, m and ni difficult to distinguish. Diacritics can disappear or become punctuation. The same person may also appear under a Polish spelling, an American spelling and a printer’s mistake.
Search from broad to narrow
- Search the complete surname without diacritics
- Try stable fragments from the beginning and end of the name
- Substitute likely letter confusions such as cz, sz, rz, w and v
- Combine a short name fragment with a street, spouse, parish or lodge
- Limit the date only after the search produces too many results
Use the event, not only the name
For a death notice, search the address, funeral home, cemetery, parish and names of surviving children. For a wedding, search the church and the bride’s address. Society notices may identify a lodge number that appears clearly even when the surname does not.
Search English and Polish wording
A Polish-language death notice may use terms such as zmarł, pogrzeb or świętej pamięci, while an English paper may use died, funeral or services. Search both languages and use the newspaper’s date format. Browse the expected issue when OCR remains unsuccessful.
Keep an image and citation
Save the whole notice and enough of the page to identify the newspaper, date, edition and page number. OCR text is a search aid, not a reliable transcription. Read names and places directly from the scan.
A newspaper notice was supplied by a family, society or reporter and can contain errors. Confirm dates and relationships with civil, parish and cemetery records.
Sources and research tools
- Library of Congress: Chronicling America newspapers
- Library of Congress: guide to genealogical research in Chronicling America
How we can help
We search Polish and English newspapers with name variants, addresses and organization clues, then translate and document the original notice.