This post is part of a series for the April Blogging from A to Z April Blogging Challenge. My theme is Newspaper Clippings in relation to my family history. These have come from both microfilmed and digitized newspapers I've searched over the past 25 years. Click to enlarge any clipping.
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Newspapers are all about Advertising. It's interesting to find advertisements that mention family members and their businesses. They are a great way to learn about the way your ancestors earned money, as well as where they may have spent it. Most of my ancestors were farmers, but I've been surprised to learn of some of the businesses owned or managed by my family members through ads.
Searching through the DeWitt Times-News on microfilm, I found that my Second Great Grandfather William Roscoe was a windmill dealer in 1884. Another ancestor who worked in the windmill industry was my Great Grandfather Clarence Mann, who worked for Dempster Mills in Beatrice later in the 1940's.
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| DeWitt [NE] Times-News, April, 1884 |
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| Aurora [NE] Republican, January 8, 1909 |
Something else I learned in Aurora was that my Grandpa owned a service station with his brother in Aurora in 1934. I have written more about this here.
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| Aurora [NE] News-Register, October 26, 1934 |
Accidents are news and often written about in newspapers. Art McGrath had a little mishap in 1931 that was kinda costly. Everyone was all right after this one. I had never heard about this.
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| Hamilton County [NE] Republican Register, September 25,1931 |
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| Aurora [NE] News-Register, December 21, 1967 |
Crete News is a recently added online and searchable paper. I found this little clipping in the issue dated April 6, 1944, but it was under a column of news from ten years earlier. My Grandpa would have been 17 years old when this happened.
Best of all, newspapers provide Answers to questions about ancestors. Like this clipping about how my Second Great Grandmother's brother ended up in Oklahoma when none of the rest of the family did.
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| Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, February 4, 1903 |
In doing family history research, these old newspaper clippings that mention ancestors gives detail and insight into what their life was like. Today, social media is free advertising. The descendants of current living people may or may not be able to find old social media posts in the future, we don't know at this point. "Clippings" of social media posts can be added to offline genealogy software to help preserve those things for future generations.
Agriculture is a big part of my family and I have some articles from recent newspapers about their agricultural achievements. What other "A" words associated with your ancestors can you think of to look for in old newspapers? Good luck with your search!
Looking forward to all your newspaper finds this month. I'm addicted to my Newspapers.com subscription. So many tidbits of family news are turning up.
ReplyDeleteIt's the greatest stuff, isn't it? Thanks Virginia
DeleteHi Laura, found you on AtoZ Master List and as a genealogist, too, knew we would have a common interest. What a good idea to use news archives, and your 'A' clippings are perfect for the challenge. You certainly found interesting clips that make for good stories...lucky Uncle Virgil's narrow miss with a hay stack. Great start to AtoZ. I've added you to my AtoZ Blog List. Here's my link...look forward to your visit to my Blog.
ReplyDeleteSue at CollectInTexas Gal
Thank you Sue. It's fun to find things we've never heard about, even about the people we remember.
DeleteLook at you going to town with multiple A's! When I first saw your theme, I tried to imagine whether I could have found enough for every letter. You're off to such a great start that I must conclude you had no problem at all. I have found an ancestor IN an ad giving a testimonial for cough syrup that turns out to have contained morphine!
ReplyDeleteI only plan to do this once LOL! I wanted to present as many suggestions of ideas as I could for each one. I struggled with some and doing this by subject, I rearranged some articles to go with a different letter than originally planned. Thanks Wendy
DeleteI did newspaper clippings last year for A to Z. They weren't all about my family, but they were all from a newspaper edited by my grandmother's cousin. For "A" I used the announcement of my grandparent's coming marriage.
ReplyDeleteI wondered if that truck that had a crash was loaded with chickens. I hope not!
http://findingeliza.com/
That's awesome that you have such a connection to the paper you used. Announcements are another good A.
DeleteAnd no, he was working for another company when he had the accident. Something I knew but didn't think to mention. That would have been awful!
Thanks Kristin!
Perhaps this is more a regional thing, but I don't think I've ever heard of anyone with "the windmill business" in their background. Stonecutting? That I've heard a lot of. But windmillls - not so much. But how fascinating to think about!
ReplyDeleteHappy A to Z'ing!
There are still several of them here in Nebraska, but not that we still get our water that way. They're used mostly where they are grazing cattle. Someone had to sell them back in the day. Thanks Jz
DeleteOld newspapers are treasure troves! Though it's often very hard to properly identify women in newspaper stories, since they're called Mrs. Husband's Full Name instead of by their actual names.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, that's the truth. By process of analysing all records, though, it can often be figured out. Thanks Carrie-Anne.
DeleteA for amazing! It's simply amazing the things you've been able to find out through old newspaper clippings. What a resource.
ReplyDeleteThank you Bernie. It's a great resource and a lot of fun finding these things.
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