Newspaper Clippings ~ I

This post is part of a series for the April Blogging from A to Z 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.

Illness 

Illness is something newsworthy, especially when it's contagious. Though this kind of news is rarely written about in newspapers in the same way today, it was often a part of the local news in the old days naming the families affected to warn the neighborhood of the threat. 

James Gaisford survived this bout of rheumatism and lived another two years. He was actually 85 years old at the time of this clipping.

Bloomington (IL) Weekly Pantagraph, April 17, 1903

Henry Menke may have improved some from this attack of paralysis, but he died four months later on September 20, 1915. It appears he likely had a stroke. His death certificate is apparently missing from the State Vital Records office. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, May 20, 1915

Frank Roscoe died of typhoid fever on May 16, just over 2 weeks after this appeared in the paper.  

DeWitt  [NE] Times-News, April 27, 1923

Oliver Roscoe died in the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. He wasn't the only person in my family tree who did, but the only mention of anyone that I've found yet. 

DeWitt [NE] Times-News, January 2, 1919

If your ancestors had a serious injury or illness, you may find it mentioned in the paper. It isn't always easy to find, but it's not impossible if you try. Good luck with your search! 

Newspaper Clippings ~ H

This post is part of a series for the April Blogging from A to Z 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.

Homestead 

Homestead claims were advertised in newspapers prior to making final proof. This clipping was in the homestead application file for John McGrath, I haven't looked in the Cozad paper for this, its only available on microfilm at the Nebraska State Historical Society Library in Lincoln. The certificate of publication states that it was "first published in said newspaper in its issue dated the 22nd of Mch 1895, and was published in each weekly issue of said newspaper thereafter for the full period of thirty days..." .

Cozad [NE] Tribune, March 22, 1895 weekly through April 26, 1895

Hospital patients in pre-HIPPA days, were noted in the local papers, occasionally even with the reason for their stay. Clarence Mann was 90 years old in August of 1968 when he had some surgery. He died in October of a ruptured left ventricle in his heart. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, August 11, 1968

Cora Mann, listed as Mrs. Clarence Mann, was admitted to the hospital in March of 1967. I've found her dismissal in the May 1, 1967 issue of the Beatrice Daily Sun. Unless there were other listings in between that a search hasn't picked up, this was likely when she lost her second leg to diabetes. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, March 15, 1967

This clipping mentioning my Grand Uncle Virg McGrath is from April 26,1946, just a few months after his release from serving four years in World War II. Many years later, once or twice I drove him to or picked him up from the same Lincoln hospital where he had surgery for lung cancer. 

Aurora [NE] News-Register, April 26, 1946

A few of my clippings mention family members who were being recognized for an honor of some kind (sometimes with their name in the headlines). One mid-1800's Illinois newspaper I searched hoping to find a marriage record, listed them under the heading "Hymenial".  I didn't find what I wanted, but I have posted the others in different "Newspaper Clippings" here in the past. What historic information can you find relating to your heritage?  Good luck with your search!

Newspaper Clippings ~ G

This post is part of a series for the April Blogging from A to Z 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.

Genealogy Info!

From the headlines to the classifieds, all kinds of genealogy information is in newspapers. It's limitless. Which is why it made a great topic for this challenge. So, I'll just mention a few of the  "G" words here.



Golden Wedding Anniversaries

My Second Great Grandparents, Charles & Henrietta Gaisford, as well as both of my paternal Great Grandparents celebrated their Golden wedding anniversaries with family gatherings that made the paper. There is so much great genealogy information in these! Unfortunately, the women were not refered to by their own names. I found these digital images online, but I already had each article. The photos come out much better from the digital images. 

Lincoln [NE] Evening Journal,
October 28, 1956

Mr. and Mrs. Albert Menke of Clatonia marked their 50th wedding anniversary last Sunday with a reception in their home. 
Albert Menke and Lottie Roscoe were married on Oct. 18, 1906 in the same room of their home where the reception was held. The couple have had 13 children, 12 of whom are living. They are Harold Menke of DeWitt, Lawrence Menke of Beatrice, Willis Menke of Diller, Cecil Menke of Bellevue, Mrs. Roy Buttgenbach of Colby, Kan., Kenneth Menke of Aurora, Rosie Menke of Lincoln, and Mms. John Weichel of Alvo, Les Kubic of Beatrice, and Neal Swanson of Lincoln. Elwood Menke and Clarence Menke of Ocala, Fla., were unable to attend the observance. The Menkes have 27 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren." 

Beatrice [NE] Express, June 2, 1917

Golden Wedding
Just fifty years ago on May 23, 1867, occurred the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Gaisford and last Wednesday, May 23, their folks gathered to honor them. Mr. and Mrs. Gaisford have nine living children, twenty-six grand children and one great grandchild all living in or near Ellis with the exception of Chas. Gaisford, Jr. who with his family resides in Oklahoma. Those who were able to be present to help them celebrate were Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Carpenter and family, Mr. and Mrs. Harlan Weaver and daughter Rachel, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Amos, Grandma Carpenter of Harbine and Mrs. Orion Miller. All enjoyed a fine dinner and ice cream and cake was served in the afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Gaisford have a host of friends in this vicinity who congratulate them on their long happy life together.

 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun,
July 10, 1949

50th Wedding Anniversary Is Honored 

A beautifully decorated cake surrounded by flowers received from friends and rrelatives made the home of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Mann, 113 S Sumner, an attractive setting for the celebration of their golden wedding anniversary July 5th. 

Following an afternoon of visiting with out-of-town guests, a lawn dinner was enjoyed by members of the family and relatives.

Family group pictures were taken immediately followed by open house. Cake and punch were served to the many friends and relatives who called. The honored couple received many flowers and gifts. Mrs. Orra Mann was in charge of the floral arrangements. Mrs. Frank Carpenter presided over the gift table and guest book. 

All 13 children were present as were all the grandchildren except one who is in California. Only one son-in-law, who was ill, was unable to be present.Present were: Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wierman, Pearle Nickeson and Donald Roe Hudson and family, Lester Mann and daughters, Orra Mann and Gary, Frank Carpenter, Earl Bartlett and sons, Lyman Bartlett and family, Elmer Krebs and family, Kenneth Menke and family, Dean Mann and family, Robert Phelps and daughters, Harley Kollekowski and Dennis, John Mathias and family, Dee Hudson, Wade Hudson and Rebecca and Mrs. Rulo Rathbun and daughters. Out-of-town guests were: Mr. and Mrs. Joe Kirk and Norma Jane, Larimar, Ia., Mr. and Mrs. Albert Vohs, Edson, Kas., Mrs. Ida Mann, Goodland, Kas., Mrs. Estelle Kirk, St. Charles, Ia., Mr. and Mrs. Orra Mann, Omaha, and Mr. and mrs. Roe Hudson, Fairbury. 

Graduates 

Giltner [NE] Gazette, May 19, 1927

My Grandpa's High School graduating class was listed in this clipping from the Giltner Gazette. Stanley Bell is listed just after Miss Leola Bell who is not related, but Lessie Alcorn is his cousin and Marie Dieckmann later became his sister-in-law. 

The [Lincoln, NE] Evening State Journal,
May 29, 1924

Grandpa's oldest brother George Oren graduated from Cotner College in 1924. I knew he had gone to this college, and this clipping is just one of a few I found thanks to digitized papers online. 



I've got many more clippings of graduates in my family. My name was even in the local paper for my Eighth Grade graduation. Gotta love small towns!







Lots of anniversaries and graduations are announced through social media. These are great events to add to your family history files. Make a note, copy and paste or take a screenshot of these postings to add to their stories.

If you have a family member involved in local government, you would likely find their name in the paper. So much great genealogy information can be found in newspapers to help provide a glimpse of your ancestors lives. Take a look, you will be glad you did. Good luck with your search!

Newspaper Clippings ~ F

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.

 Farm Sales


The majority of my ancestors were farmers and it's great to find a notice of the sale of their farm or farm equipment in the newspaper. A sale bill will include a list of their implements, possibly some livestock and a description of the location of their farm. 


This "Menke farm" had been in the family since about 1879. Patriarch Henry Menke died in 1915 and his wife kept it going with the help of their son, my Great Grandfather Albert. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, August 6, 1944

Often there is so much information about the equipment and livestock they had for sale. Notice there is no tractor listed in this one from 1940 of my Great Grandpa Mann's sale.  He preferred to work with horses. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, March 1, 1940

Giltner [NE] Gazette, October 12, 1934

Cicero Bell sold his farm during the depression. He was 65 years old at the time, but apparently the "son" (who may have been my Grandpa) didn't plan to continue farming. I wrote about this and included a transcription of the sale bill here.  A unique thing about the Giltner Gazette is that a man named Gerald E. Sherard wrote a book in which he abstracted names from the Giltner Gazette from 1918 to 1962, along with much more of the history of Giltner. He notes the date of the issue where the names occur, which make finding them very easy. ¹
 

Besides Funeral notices, family and friends who attend from out of town are occasionally noted in old newspapers, often in the social columns separately from the obituary.  It's nice to see that relatives from a distance made the trip for a loved ones funeral. Like all the way from Canada in 1923.    

DeWitt [NE]Times-News, May, 1923

A road trip to Oklahoma in 1941 for a funeral included my Grandparents, Great Grandparents and other relatives of my Grandma's aunt. I wonder how many cars were in this caravan.

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, May 6, 1941

Not so long of a trip, it's nice to see that the Lee family of Hastings attended the funeral of their uncle and brother-in-law. Hastings to Harvard is a short 20 mile drive. This is the only time I've seen Josiah referred to as "Cy". 

Harvard [NE] Courier, April 20,1922

Some of my newspaper clippings with my own name include the results of my 4-H exhibits at the County Fair. I have some of my Dad's, too. More articles I've found include Fraternal organizations that my ancestors were involved in.  

Fun little tidbits about your ancestors in old papers help fill the dash between their birth and death dates. For me, they help fulfill a desire to know more about them. What can you find? Good luck with your search!

---

SOURCES:
1 "Historical Sketches of Giltner, Nebraska, by Gerald E. Sherard, 1985, Gateway Press Inc., Baltimore ^↩

 

Newspaper Clippings ~ E

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.

 Engagement Announcement

From recent newspapers, I have a lot of engagement announcements. It isn't often I've found a clipping of an engagement announcement in old newspapers, but in this case it's the only record I have of the marriage of my Great Grandmother's sister, Merlin Belle Jorgenson to Earl McKee. I don't have an exact date yet for their marriage and I can't find any official marriage license or certificate. I'm not sure where the wedding actually took place.

When I visited the Peotone, Illinois Public Library, I found this on microfilm and searched for an article on the wedding, but couldn't find one. I've also searched microfilm newspapers at the Abraham Lincoln Library in Springfield, Illinois with no success.  The paper I needed was almost too faded to read.

Peotone [IL] Vedette, August 4, 1911

Belle fascinates me and I've written about her before. I've followed her teaching career in the paper. She was also apparently somewhat of an Entertainer and I've found her name in various newspapers throughout her life. The California Digital Newspaper Collection has several articles where she is mentioned by name.  

Los Angeles [CA] Herald, November 22, 1913

Los Angeles [CA] Herald, December 20, 1913

Los Angeles [CA] Herald, March 8, 1917

Over the years, I've had family members who ran for public office. The Election results are always printed in the paper. I also have clippings of couples in my family who Eloped.  Not everything makes the paper, but you can enrich the stories of your ancestors through newspaper articles. Good luck with your search! 

Newspaper Clippings ~ D

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.

 Death notices 

Long, detailed obituaries about ancestors are always nice to find. Sometimes only a one-sentence death notice is all that is printed in the newspaper.   Even though this one doesn't seem to say much about my Fourth Great Grandmother, Esther Simmons, it tells me that the family had moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois by 1839. Earlier than any other record I have of them.  

Commercial Advertisor, [New York, NY] October 19, 1839, pg 1

Microfilmed newspapers of the DeWitt Times-News are missing issues just after the death of my Third Great Grandfather, David A Roscoe. This is all that I've been able to find and probably all that I ever will about his death.  At least it tells me something about his cause of death. 

The Opposition, [Saline Co., NE] May 22, 1884

Through the Kentucky Digital Library's Historic Newspapers, I was able to find this sentence about my Third Great Grandmother from Wayne County. The Wayne Count Outlook is available online, but it seems to be missing a couple of issues immediately following her death on April 11 and I haven't found anything later. 

Interior Journal, Stanford, [KY] April 23, 1907

This old clipping was among a list of death notices in Lisbon, Connecticut. Austin Bliss is my Fourth Great Grandfather. No full obituary appeared in the Norwich Aurora that I've ever found. Maybe someday a Lisbon paper will be made available online. 

Norwich Aurora, [CT] January 11, 1871

A little longer paragraph was allowed for my Third Great Grandfather Henry Knapp within the social column for Powellsville, Ohio news. His wife did actually survive him another three and a half years, but to my knowledge her death was not in the news. 

Portsmouth [OH] Daily Times, January 23, 1892

A librarian in Worcester, Massachusetts send me this clipping of my Third Great Grandfather's death. This was where I learned his middle name.  Nothing more was found about him in the paper. 

Worcester [MA] Daily Spy, December 23, 1903

Obituaries can be very expensive to have printed in newspapers. Possibly the reason some of these are all I've been able to find. Today many obituaries can be found and copied for your records from the funeral home's website. Most likely they are longer than one sentence.

Dances are always advertised in newspapers. If I knew more about the dance where my Grandparents met, I could likely find it advertised in the local paper. And then there are Divorces. I have some of those, too. Diamonds are valuable gems, but articles from old newspapers about ancestors are priceless. It's worth a look. Good luck with your search!

Newspaper Clippings ~ C

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.

Card of Thanks

Tyler [TX} Daily Courier-Times, Monday, August 2, 1920 pg 2

Often with or after an obituary the family will run a "Card of Thanks" as a way to show their appreciation to the general public who they felt helped and supported them. In this case, this is the only record of the death of Rebecca Bell, wife of Elijah, that's been found. I have no access to this local paper and didn't look myself, but a helpful librarian in Tyler, Texas found this and tried but didn't find an obituary. 

DeWitt [NE] Times-News, March 30, 1923

Mary C Roscoe had remarried in 1891, but that fact seemed to be ignored by the Roscoe family. This Card of Thanks is one example of that. I think her second husband was bad news. As I do sometimes, this is a photo of the microfilm screen that I took with my phone to keep this. Saves time moving the reel of film from one reader to an open reader that will print a copy. 

Church activities and other church news is one way that female ancestors make the papers, although sometimes still with only their husband's first name. This is from 1947, "Mrs. C Bell" is my great grandma.  

Aurora [NE] News-Register, August 8, 1947

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, October 11, 1944

Grandma, aka "Mrs Kenneth Menke", was always active in her church, as well as her sisters both Mrs. Bartlett's here. 

Hamilton County [NE] Republican Register, June 3, 1930

My other Grandma at age 13, Violet McGrath and her Sunday School class literally took a hike. Some of these other girls named here may be in some old photos we have - a clue for helping identify them. 







Many funeral homes now have an option for people to electronically send notes to the family which are sometimes made public. It's been my experience that the funeral home shares a printed copy for the immediate family. For family history, copies of these can also be added to that deceased person's notes with your research. 

My collection of clippings also include articles covering college students news, club activities and family celebrations of all kinds. Can you think of anything that start with "C" that would relate to your ancestors? Good luck with your search!