Newspaper indexing is one of my favorite pasttimes. Â For the past several years I’ve been working through older issues of the Roanoke Beacon paper teasing out information about Washington County residents.
My first database is here and while searchable, I’ve never been completely happy with it.  So, earlier in the year I started to redesign how I record information and have created a new database.  Not only does it work for extracts from the Roanoke Beacon, but I can use it for items reported in newspapers from many places.  I’ve named the new site, NC People in the News and am donating the material to the NCGenWeb Project.
This is the first time I’ve shared the link, so please understand that it is not quite finished yet. Â However, it’s flexible, and one thing I can do is tease out Washington county deaths I’ve added that appeared in the Roanoke Beacon, organized by Last Name of the individual. Â I am in transition of moving content from the old site to this one and it may take awhile. Â This is definitely an ongoing project.
screenshot from NC People in the Papers database
To see the list click here. Â I hope this makes looking for your ancestors a less complicated task.