This study was started in the frame of an assessment of the completeness of parametric earthquake catalogues. Its primary aim was to check whether early journalistic sources can yield “new” earthquake data, i.e. data on previously unknown damaging earthquakes and previously unknown data on such already known events. Another aim was to assess the quality of the resulting information, an important matter given the widespread opinion that early journalistic sources are highly unreliable. A large sample of monographical (pamphlets) and serial (gazettes) early journalistic sources was systematically searched for “new” earthquake data. The results show them to have a high informative content, while being no more unreliable than most historical sources. It is safe to assume that a large-scale combined effort to put this informative potential within general reach would give a great impetus towards increasing the completeness of the parametric earthquake catalogues of most European (and also non-European) countries.