Reader Darlene Crater was kind enough to alert me to a new-to-me digital resource, the California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC). I don’t have California roots, but I do have a few collateral relatives who lived there, so I searched on their names. I was able to download an obituary for one of them, Wayne Horace Adams, which I was delighted to add to my Reunion database.
The CDNC is free to use and contains newspaper articles dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. This Wikipedia article details the history of the CDNC and lists the newspapers included in the database.
Unfortunately, funding for the CDNC is in jeopardy. Darlene shared an April 30, 2025 email from the Brian Geiger, director of the Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research at the University of California Riverside, which hosts the CNDC. Geiger said that funding for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2025, was withheld by the state and the university needs to come up with funding to keep alive. He also shared a link to this article that summarizes the situation.
If you have California people to research at CDNC you may want to act quickly in case the database is taken offline. If you’re moved to donate to help keep it afloat, here’s a link to donate to the CDNC.
Thanks for posting. As a test I entered my grgrandfather’s name and found a 1854 newspaper ad from Adam’s & Co. Express indicating that my grgrandfather was an agent for that company. They handled messages/mail/shipping in Northern CA.
That is so cool, Jerry!!
This is a very important resource for us researchers in California. I do hope they receive the funding they need to keep it afloat.
I agree 100 percent!
I am able to search their site, but cannot access any of the resulting articles. I’m so sad to see that the funding issues may have restricted access.