Historical Newspaper Index

This is an index to the early years of newspapers published in Santa Cruz County, primarily 1856-1960.  The Santa Cruz Surf, Pacific Sentinel, Santa Cruz Sentinel, and Mountain Echo are the main newspapers included.

The Historical Newspaper Index is separate from the rest of the Local History Collection. While there is some overlap in content between this index and the Local News Index, they are different databases and are searched separately.

Volunteers from the Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County create and maintain the index and are responsible for the content.  See About the Historical Newspaper Index for more information on the newspapers and dates covered, as well as a history of the project.

Most of the articles referenced in the Index are available on microfilm at the Downtown Branch, or through newspapers.com. Copies of individual articles may be available by contacting the SCPL Reference Department or the Genealogical Society.

Search:

Search Tips

Search By Name

• Search by name using quotations, eg: "Smith, Fred", will return records with the exact name Smith, Fred.
• Without quotations, eg: Smith Fred, will return records containing Smith and Fred as separate words.

Search by Date
To search by date Enter a full or partial date in the format YYYY-MM-DD, eg:

• Searching for 1963-05-05 will return records for that day.
• Searching for 1963-05 will return records from May of 1963.
• Searching for 1963 will return records for 1963.
• Searching for 196 will return records for the 1960's.

Search For Keywords
Enter any keywords, eg:

• Watsonville
• Christmas
• Arrest

Combine names, dates and keywords for narrower results. eg:
If You were looking for a person with the last name Smith who was involved in an accident in the 1940's you could search for Smith accident 194.