Thursday, February 1, 2018

Read it in the Newspaper


When researching the lives of our ancestors, we generally head first for those landmark dates on the family timeline: dates of birth, marriage and death. After that, our attention turns to listing the children, and the whole tango starts up again. Birth, marriage and death, and then flip to the next generation.

But what about the lives lived in between those three dates? We can't really get a feel for what our ancestors were like if we limit ourselves to "just the facts, ma'am."

That's when I like to turn to newspapersespecially for those not-so-rich and definitely not-so-famous forebears. For my ancestors fortunate enough to have moved beyond New York City or other major metropolitan areas, hometown newspapers sometimes provide a wealth of knowledgewith a dose of trivia thrown in for good measure.

Now that I'm working on a photo project for someone else's relativesI'm trying to return an orphaned photograph that I found in a northern California antique shop to the family of Forrest and Clara BarnesI've found myself stuck with a lack of helpful details. So, I turn to the newspapers, once again.

My first goal was to find any information on where Forrest and Clara Barnes' daughter Alta might have ended up. I found out she was buried back in Cowley County, Kansas, where the family once lived, but I hadn't been able to find an obituary there.

Of course, my first step had been to Google Alta's married name, Williams. With a surname as common as that, I made no progress. Beyond that, I knew there were some other options for free resources for newspaper archives. Granted, Wikipedia provides a list of archives which are accessible online. So does Google Newsworldwide.

The trouble is that some lists are so huge as to be nearly useless. And, as you probably noticed, some lists include incredibly delimited collections, such as online resources which only cover a span of ten years, for instancenot terribly helpful when the date needed falls just one year shy of the collection's offerings.

The same drawback applies to the U.S. Library of Congress' Chronicling America collection. As wonderful a resource as it is, the coverage is spotty, both by date and by location. And that's just for newspapers in the United States. A collection like that found via Elephind expands that headache worldwide.

Perhaps that's why some researchers prefer a curated list, but that often comes with a price tag. The Old Fulton New York Post Card site, for instance, has plenty of coverageand for free, the best newsbut its quirky setup and focus on the northeastern United States (and a bit of eastern Canada) can't be of help to everyone.

The comparative convenience may be what draws researchers to subscription services, like NewspaperArchive or Newspapers.com. But even here, people find that the year they are seeking is not included in the holdings, or the small town in Kansas isn't in the collection, making the investment less of a research bargain than once hoped.

I've learned to look for whatever help I can find. That's why I'm impressed with the passionate approach taken by bloggers like Kenneth R. Marks, whose newspaper research lessons take new researchers through the steps on locating targeted relatives, and whose regularly-updated 25,000 hyperlinks to free newspaper resources help convert the overwhelming into the kind of haystack where you just might find that genealogical needle.

While I do subscribe to a few newspaper archival resources, I try first to locate what I'm seeking through a free medium. In Alta's case, though, I just wasn't finding any leads. So I headed to one of those subscription resourcesin this case, GenealogyBankwhere I finally found what I was looking for.

Still, it was like uncovering a consolation prize. The details weren't extensive. Basically, Alta Barnes Williams died on Saturday, March 7, 1998but where? The two named survivors were her son, by then moved to Oregon, and her daughter, who lived in Oklahoma. Besides them, there were three unnamed grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. None of them seemed to have a California connection, leaving me still to wonder just how the photograph of Alta and her two sisters might have ended up in that Jackson antique shop.  

8 comments:

  1. Sure hope you find a relative and the connection to California

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The link--whatever it turns out to be--looks pretty murky at this point.

      Delete
  2. Newspapers are wonderful resources. I like the social columns. Mr and Mrs X visited Mr and Mrs Y. or Mrs. Z had a dinner at her home. Those are charming pieces. Of course, weddings or death notices are often packed with information. But they can be hard to sort through. Thanks for mentioning Kenneth R. Marks. I will look closely at that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, do check it out, Colleen. I think Kenneth Marks has done a great job on championing newspaper research.

      And yes, those social columns. That's what I had in mind when I mentioned researching relatives living anywhere besides New York City. Those reports of who came to town to visit so-and-so for Sunday dinner--and what they ate, down to the dessert!--are great fun to read, especially when it turns out to be that elusive relative. (Of course, it's all sour grapes for me, since I have the misfortune of researching ancestors who stayed put in New York City...and weren't the type to have their name featured in the New York Times social column.)

      Delete
  3. I live near the Rutherford B Hayes Libary and research their newspaper sites. I can get lost for hours!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like a delightful dilemma, Miss Merry! I had no idea the Hayes Library had an on-site research center. Good detail to keep in mind, next time I'm traveling through Ohio.

      Delete
  4. I have been able to use the Fulton New York Post Card site to help solve research problems. Thanks for the information on the Wikipedia.
    I need to use it. The Wiki in FamilySearch.org can be useful, but I forget to use it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All of these newspaper resources can be treasure troves, Grant. It just depends on where and when the person lived. I've had lots of success with the Old Fulton site, too, and have been surprised at the extent of their collection. No matter where you find it, any newspaper article on an ancestor is a thrilling discovery!

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...