The Fredericksburg News was a long running Whig then Democratic newspaper published in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Begun in 1847 by Robert B. Semple as the editor until his death in 1853 and then edited by Archibald A. Little until his death in 1877, followed by his sister, Bella Little, then his son, A. J. Little, and finally by James T. Powell from 1885 to the paper's demise in 1886. When the newspaper began publishing at the end of the Civil War Little briefly changed the name to the Fredericksburg New Era for two years. For convenience of researchers these issues of the New Era have been included in the database. For a capsule history of the newspaper Carroll Quenzel's Preliminary checklist for Fredericksburg, 1778-1876 is offered here. Because every electronic index needs to be questioned about how complete the holdings were, there is included here a listing of the surviving issues used in the creation of this index. The original task of indexing this newspaper was undertaken by Dr. Robert A. Hodge who, in his own words, scanned for most names and events of interest to local historians and genealogists. Each entry should consist of a name, a reason for its occurance, an issue date and a combination page/column designation.
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