Ancestors In Newspaper Clippings

This weeks 52 Ancestors prompt "In the paper" is perfectly timed for me. Last week I revealed that I'm also taking part in the A to Z April Blogging Challenge and my theme for this is Newspaper Clippings in my family history research. It will include in an alphabetical format, clippings I've found through the past 25 years searching both microfilm and digitized newspapers. Can you guess how I'll use each letter? Some might surprise you.

Every so often here at The Old Trunk in the Attic, I feature a portion of a local social column from a paper I copied from microfilm while looking for mentions of my ancestors. The goal in doing this is that it potentially could be of help to someone some day. Realistically, I know that it won't happen often. What I post is just a drop in the bucket of news that is not available through online digitized newspapers. Just in case, take a look at them by using the "Newspaper Clippings" Label to the right.

In searchable, digitized newspapers I've found a variety of mentions of my ancestors. So much more than just obituaries and the local gossip columns. For just one example, I've used newspapers to follow the careers of preachers and teachers:

Tracing the Career Path of Rev. G. O. Bell

Ord Quiz, January 14, 1926

My Search for a Photo of Belle

Chicago Daily Tribune, August 4, 1911

My series on the grave's I've been to will be suspended until May. For the month of April, I will be posting not four, but 26 ancestor posts. Maybe I can still count one per week for #52Ancestors. I hope you'll check out my Newspaper Clippings from A to Z. 

Old Trunk in the Attic's #AtoZChallenge Theme Reveal

Every April rolls around and I enjoy reading blog posts other bloggers write for the A to Z April Blogging Challenge and get the idea to try it myself. This challenge is open not only to genealogy bloggers, but all bloggers of any topic. Each participant can choose their own theme related to their blog topic to write about. Every year April is suddenly here and I'm not prepared to do 26 posts in 26 days. I don't write daily. For those who aren't familiar with my blog, I should point out that I know writing is not my strong point. I just write to share the things I've learned about my family history.

Last April I decided to pre-plan for 2019. After debating between a couple of ideas, I decided for my theme to write about the Newspaper Clippings I've found in relation to my family history research.  I stashed clippings in a folder to include and have spent the last few months writing about them. So this year I am ready for 26 days of blogging. 

Most tombstones have a year, then a dash, then a year. I love to use newspapers to help change that dash to a documentary on my ancestors. Digitized, searchable newspapers are fantastic for adding insight and character to a person. It's even better when they are available online. I use as many free sites as possible and I find them through The Ancestor Hunt. I've been making trips to the Nebraska State Historical Society Library in Lincoln for several years collecting clippings of articles from microfilmed newspapers where my ancestors were mentioned. When searching for articles on microfilm, it is almost necessary to know a date of an event. Occasionally, I've gotten lucky finding interesting mentions just by browsing the papers, but I don't have much opportunity for that. The newspaper clippings I post in this series will come from both microfilmed and digitized newspapers.

I hope you will follow along and maybe try searching for your own ancestors in the 

Friday's Faces from the Past - Not Alice's Style

Alice May Negley was my Great Grandmother Sadie's sister. Elmer Negley was her nephew, her brother George's son. Elmer served in WWII, spent some time in Mexio and brought his Aunt this apron. 

I'm not sure who Alice is writing to here, but her parents were deceased.  It could have possibly been my Grandma, but I think she would have said "your mother" instead of "Sadie". Virgil is Grandma's brother. She might have been writing to her brother Bill.  I think "here" might be North Platte, Nebraska.

Alice May Negley, July, 1946

"Yours Truly 'Allie May'
Taken by Elmer Negley July - 1946 - The apron I have on is one he brot me from Mexico. He is now in Yokohama, Japan, we had a letter from him week ago yesterday. He likes it over there, but, does get lonesome for home. 10,000 miles away is a long ways from home. You did not get out to visit us this summer, did you? I have been wanting to come & see you, but don't get any place. Virgil was here this evening, everybody is OK far as we know, we are here. Hope you are too. Wish you could come over, sure would enjoy a visit with you. Sadie was here week ago tonite said she had been to see you. With love Alice"

Back of photo

So Many Mothers Lost

March is National Women's History Month. I have been blessed to be a mother and I'm very grateful that I've been able to see the woman my daughter has grown up to be. She makes me very proud. Being a mother was very challenging and stressful at times, but my daughter and I have had a lot of fun together, too. Though being a mother is not a requirement of all women, it's a wonderful aspect of being female. 

One thing I find all too often in my family tree that grieves me is a woman who died during or after having given birth. It's so sad to know that she didn't get to see her children grow up. Incredibly sad to think that her children had to grow up without her. 

Though I don't have positive proof in all cases, these are the mothers in my family tree who likely died of complications during or after childbirth. Five of these women are my direct ancestors. Their deaths all occurred in the mid 1800's. This make me very grateful for the progress made in the medical field. 


Susannah Case Lee (1816-1851) my Third Great Grandmother, died the same day she gave birth to her third child. She was 34. Her son, Thomas died about four months later. My Second Great Grandmother was two years old at the time and her father never remarried.



Mary Abigail Bliss Smith (1829-1866) my Third Great Grandmother, died "in confinement" in 1866.  The baby boy was born three days before her death and he died almost three months later. Mary was almost 38 years old. She left my Second Great Grandmother Henrietta, age 18, Annie age 14 and Carrie age 5. Mary's husband John remarried five months after her death. 

In 1889, daughter Carrie also died of pereperal eclampsia after the premature death of an unnamed baby girl who also died. She had no other children that I know of. 

I Believe this may be
Ruth Smith Simmons Webb. This is
the only picture I have of any
of these women.

Ruth Smith Simmons Webb (1819-1863) also my Third Great Grandmother, died at about age 44, 10 days after her 9th child was born. This information came from the affidavit of a woman who was present when the boy was born. I believe in this case he was adopted and went on to live a full life.  Ruth had five children with her first husband, my second Great Grandmother Rachel was her oldest. Rachel was married and had two children of her own when her mother died. Ruth's husband Cyrus Webb mustered into Camp Butler a few months after her death and died one month later. Ruth's children are all in separate households in the 1870 census. 

Ruth's second daughter, Rosilla, died at age 22, also possibly after giving birth to a son or another baby within a couple years of her sons birth in November of 1864.


Mary Jane Hull Clemie Jones (1818-1854) another Third Great Grandmother, died at age 37. I have no record proving her death was due to childbirth, but the same year she died, she gave birth to her 8th child. a son George. I don't know his birth date. My Second Great Grandmother, Nancy Jane, was 16 at that time and was left with her step-father and five younger step-siblings at home. Her two older brothers may have been around home yet also. Mary Jane's husband Edward Jones remarried in the next two years.


Hiley Ann Decker Spann (1836-1884) my Second Great Grandmother, possibly died due to childbirth, I don't know for sure. She was 47 years old and I only say she might have died from childbirth because her youngest child was just two. So she had a child at 45. Hiley Ann had 10 children, all of them lived to at least 22 years. One or two of her daughters may have also died of causes related to childbirth. Her husband Benjamin remarried within a few years.  

Mattie Conley Spann (?-1894) After Ben's first wife died, he married Mattie who gave him six more children, though only three survived. A descendant of Mattie's told me that she died from the birth of twin boys and the twins also died. 

Mittie Ramsey Bell (1873-1900) was my Great Grandfather Cicero Bell's first wife. She died of cholera just after giving birth to their fourth child. That boy also died, as well as three year old daughter Leavey, one month later. Two sons ages 8 and 6 were left without their mother. Had it not been for Mittie's death, I would not be here. I am the great granddaughter of Cicero and his second wife Allie. They married six months after Mittie's death.


Catherine Negley Dorman (1843-1870) the sister of my Great Grandfather Josiah F. Negley died when she was 26. She had given birth to a daughter the same month of her death. Years ago a descendant of hers told me that was how she died. I don't know how long the girl lived. 


Henrietta Thompson Spalding (1786-1826) was my husband's third Great Grandmother. She died just days after giving birth to her sixth child when she was 40 years old. The boy was my husband's direct ancestor. Henrietta was her husband Richard's second wife, I'm unsure of how his first wife died. He then married again about a year later.


No doubt there are many more women in my tree who lost their lives due to complications of giving birth. This only covers the past six generations. In some cases following a mothers death a step-parent entered the home, in others the children were sent to other homes. In all cases they learned to deal with the loss of their mother.  

I Left a Stone Unturned

On a hot summer day in 1998, July 9 to be exact, I visited the Bunker Hill Cemetery in Buda, Illinois to visit the graves of my Third Great Grandparents Charles and Susannah Lee. Notes in some family papers had told me they were there. 

It was getting toward evening when we got to the cemetery. Bunker Hill has only a few hundred graves and sits just north of a little church which I think was still in use at that time. It was the first time I made my family take time while on a vacation to let me do some genealogy work. They were patient (worn out from swimming) and even a little helpful. 

My husband might have found it first, to the left of the entrance only a few rows back under an old cedar tree. It was lying down with Charles' inscription on the up-side. There was just enough light left to read the inscription. I was sure that Susannah's name would be on the other side, but I didn't dare to turn it over. A few years later, someone posted photos on Find A Grave of the stone upright and with Susannah's inscription. Obviously, the photo had been taken years before it was posted and before I was there. 


Susannah died April 24, 1851 after giving birth to their third child, Thomas Jefferson Lee. She left a five-year-old son and two-year-old daughter, my Great Grandmother Sarah. I haven't confirmed any other family members for her, I've found very few records with her name at all.

Thomas died at four months old on September 8.


It was just ten years later when Charles died. I'd love to uncover the cause of his death at only 41. He had one sister that I know of - Hannah Holmes, wife of Lewis. She was also living in Bureau County when both Susannah and Charles died. I assume she helped Charles raise his two children until her death in 1858.

Charles' mother Polly Lee was living with Hannah and her husband in 1850, but I've found no record of her after that. There are some possible leads through DNA for parents of Charles, but finding documentation that confirms anything has been difficult.  I've had no success with what few records I've had time to discover.