Newspaper Clippings ~ S

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.

Sports and School activities

These two "S" words are simultaneously a part of my collection of newspaper clippings. The sports section of the paper is probably the most read section at my house. 

Aurora News Register, September 17, 1925

Aurora News Register, December 3, 1925

My maternal Grandpa Stan Bell appeared to be a promising athlete when he moved from Kansas to Nebraska. He played both football, basketball in high school, which I didn't know about him until I found these clippings. He played baseball, too, in the summer. I've heard he pitched a no-hitter once, but I haven't been able to find that in any paper yet. It's there somewhere, I've heard he carried that clipping with him in his wallet.

Aurora News Register, April 17, 1931

My Grand Uncle Orville was in the Junior Class play in Aurora. He "was very good" according to this review. This is a fun clipping to have about him, I only vaguely remember him. He married, but they had no children. 

The Aurora newspapers are digitized, but only available at the public library there. Making the time to go doesn't happen as often as I would like. I'm sure I have much more to find there yet. 

Crete News, April 1, 1926

This news from District 66 in Saline County includes my paternal Grandpa Kenneth Menke and his siblings. It says his family moved into the district "by the end of the second month of school" and have moved away by this time which must have been late March. Grandpa is a first-grader here. I wish there was a photo! 








Many schools have Facebook pages or groups to keep an eye on the activities going on there. Facebook pages can easily be kept up-to-date for event changes and other information. 

The majority of my newspaper clippings of sports and school events are about three generations of living family members. Articles about cheerleading and sports of all kinds, music programs, and academics, involving family members fill a scrapbook or two. You can be successful searching for your ancestors stories in school and sports news if you try. Good luck with your search!

Newspaper Clippings ~ R

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.

Reunions 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, June 23, 1931

Family reunions, school reunions, any other types of reunions may be advertised in advance in the newspaper. Sometimes an article will appear in the paper after the event.  

This Family Reunion was a part of the Ellis news column of the Beatrice Daily Sun. "Grandma Gaisford" is my Second Great Grandmother, the others present were her children and their families. I can account for everyone listed here in my family tree software. This is Cora Mann's side of the family...

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, August 9,1931

Clarence Mann's side held a reunion for his side of the family in August of the same year. My Grandma Doris listed here was 11 years old at the time. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, July 25, 1932

Another generation back in the Gaisford family, this shows a brother of my Second Great Grandfather Charles Gaisford from Iowa came to visit in 1932. Charles and Henrietta  were both deceased at this time. It would have been mostly the first cousins who honored their Uncle Gene Gaisford, his wife and daughter.








The last line of this clipping says "The family are quite widely scattered, but hope for more pleasant reunions in the years to come". This year will be the 120th annual Mann Family picnic. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, October 3,1933

Reunions can happen in a different way through social media today. Family groups can be created in Facebook which can be a great way to keep everyone in contact with each other.

Red Cross Auxiliary activities and blood donors are often noted in the paper, and I have some clippings that mention people in my tree. I'm sure there are other relative subjects you can think of to look for in newspapers. Good luck with your search! 

Newspaper Clippings ~ Q

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.

Questions

News articles are supposed to answer all the questions - Who, What, Where, When, How and Why. When you find a record referring to an ancestor, it leads to more questions.  It's the same with newspaper articles, sometimes more so than others.

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, August 20, 1941

Before I found this clipping, I thought the only children of Will and Lena Roscoe to give them grandchildren were their daughters. No one would have the Roscoe surname. So my question was WHO is Frankie Mae Roscoe? Clearly she is a granddaughter, but who's daughter is she? My first guess was their son Frank for obvious reasons, but as far as I knew Frank died single. He was single in the 1920 census, and died in 1923. 

So when I found his obituary I learned that he "was survived by a wife". But WHAT was her NAME? There was no mention of a daughter, so I theorized that his wife was pregnant when he died. Miss Frankie Mae Roscoe would have been about 18 years old when she visited her grandparents in 1941. Frank's obituary appeared in the May 24, 1923 edition of the DeWitt Times-News. In the next week's edition, I found this little note in the social news column. This must be Frank's wife, but I haven't been able to confirm that.

DeWitt [NE] Times-News, May 31, 1923

I have some possible suspects in Missouri, but I still have questions about these women. 


Quotes by an ancestor are fun to find. My Great Grandparents Clarence and Cora Mann were both quoted in an article written about their 69 years together. "We're a very close family." she said, and that was so true. Great Grandpa's comment tickles me, "Funny how you remember some things, like the macaroni we had in a restaurant then. Neither of us had ever eaten it before, and we couldn't decide whether we liked it or not."  It must have come from my Great Grandma that I got my knack of remembering birthdays. Here she says, "I can call off the name and age of every grandchild [39 of them], also the month, but I sometimes miss the exact date."  

Lincoln [NE] Sunday Journal and Star, July 28, 1968

Quarantine  is a word that's not good to see, but it happened often enough. Clarence & Cora Mann's family suffered and everyone came through all right. My Grandma would have been 4-1/2 years old when possibly scarlet fever hit the family. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, December 17, 1924

Among my living family members, we've had Queen candidates for local events who got some attention in the newspaper. Are there questions about your ancestors you could find answers to in old newspapers? Good luck in your search!

Newspaper Clippings ~ P

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.

Photographs

Finding photographs of ancestors in old newspapers is so cool!  Especially if you've never seen a picture of that person before. The quality of the photo is much better from a digitized paper, they don't copy well from microfilm. 

Leon [IA] Reporter, November 30, 1916

David F. Negley is my Second Great Grandfather's brother. I found this photo of him searching online at Chronicling America and I had not ever seen him a picture of him before. He looks a lot like his brother Josiah. This is an advertisement for Dr Weber's services, I assume David approved this message. I know very little about him, but it looks like he was blind - or so it says here. Was it "blind" or just poor eyesight? 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, March 1, 1945

My Grandpa's brother Clarence had his photo in the paper while he was serving in WWII for receiving the Purple Heart. He looks so young. 



















Property Transfers and Deeds

Listings of changes in property ownership are often in local newspapers. These give legal description information and name both buyer and seller which can help in finding the actual deeds.  

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, June 8, 1950

People post photos to social media all the time, but remember that due to copyright restrictions you should not post someone else's photo to any online family tree without permission. 

I also have clippings of family members listed as Pallbearers in obituaries of both family members and friends. You can probably think of other newspaper clippings you could possibly file under "P". Good luck with your search! 

Newspaper Clippings ~ O

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.

Occupations

I bet you thought I was going to say Obituaries! That would be too obvious, and I have far too many. While a lot of my ancestors were farmers, there are those who were teachers, preachers and did other types of jobs.

El Paso [TX] Herald, July 18, 1918

One of the most exciting things I found happened when trying to find out how "Mrs. Anna Loucks" was a cousin to my Second Great Grandmother Lena Roscoe. Starting with a Google search for her, I quickly learned that she was one of the first female police officers in Chicago, back in 1913. I've found several articles about the formation of this group of ten women in papers from all over the country. Stories about the work of this task force made editions of many newspapers outside of Chicago. I found several at Chronicling America, this one is from El Paso, Texas. I've written about Anna before here. 



Cleve Roscoe was a police officer in Kansas City in the 1920's,'30's and maybe into the 1940's. In this listing of the payroll of the Park Department he is listed under "East Park Districe, Division No. 4" as a skilled laborer. It includes his address, daily rate and amount paid on April 15th. 

Kansas City [MO] Star, May 7, 1939

Rock Springs [WY] Miner, June 1906

One of the teachers in my family tree grew up in Illinois and moved around during her life. From M. Belle (Jorgenson) McKee's obituary I learned Rock Springs High School in Wyoming was one of the schools where she taught before she married. Through Wyoming online digital newspapers I found her name in the local paper several times, first searching for Jorgen"son" and then Jorgen"sen". She left public school teaching and taught at a private tutoring school in Los Angeles and I find very little about that school in newspapers.

Aurelia [IA] Sentinel,  June 11,1909

Preachers are also in the newspaper a lot. Whenever a change is made in the ministry of the local churches, there's at least a mention in the society pages. Local newspapers in the right time-frames for me to find Rev. Henry Menke, Jr are available in both Carter County, Missouri and Cherokee County, Iowa, two of the areas he served. 

One more small clipping I've been able to find from the Illinois Digital newspapers site tells me Charles Lee was the first postmaster in Macon. He died in 1861, so he wasn't postmaster for long. I had hoped to find his obituary, but it's not in an online digitized newspaper, nor one local paper I've searched on microfilm.

Ottawa [IL] Free Trader, June 14, 1856

Obituaries often mention a person's occupation, which can help you find more about them in newspapers. Online newspapers are common now and when one of my family members has an article or a mention in the paper, I sometimes save a copy for myself as a pdf file. Can you think of any other "O" words you might find? Good luck with your search! 

Newspaper Clippings ~ N

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.

Neighbors

Those juicy gossip columns of social news are great for learning more about an ancestors neighbors! If you read many of these, over time you can learn the relationships between a lot of them. Remember that most likely your ancestor knew and were friends with most of the people in their own neighborhoods back then. 

Hamilton County [NE] Advocate, April 23, 1912

I've posted this clipping before with the transcription if you want to see it. Here you can learn that Ray Galetly has a cousin named Stull Swearengen. It tells you that Mrs. R. Bilslaugh and son came from Iowa and you see more than once a woman is mentioned visiting her mother or vice versa. It's a great way to learn a woman's maiden name, but keep in mind if a mother was a young widow, she may have gotten remarried. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, April 23, 1932

In this clipping you see groups of people who celebrated events together. Reading these columns over a period of time, you can eventually learn more about the relationships between the people as they are mentioned in different ways.  The last paragraph here says Fred Fielder was visiting his parents, but doesn't mention them by name.  In the issue below, you get the name of his father anyway, and some hints to the little Camp boy's relation. It can take a lot of time if you're only access is microfilmed papers, but with digitized papers you can more easily find these.

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, April 6, 1932

Nowadays newspapers don't print this type of column. Nevertheless, neighbors and friends I've known for years have occasionally had nice articles written about them in the local newspaper. Necrologies are something else to look for, usually at the end or beginning of a year, listing deaths and major events from the current or previous year. And remember that Nuptials is a word often used for weddings. What news stories that name your ancestors can you find? Good luck with your search! 

Newspaper Clippings ~ M

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.

Marriage 

Both marriage licenses and announcements are printed in newspapers occasionally. Locally, it's getting more expensive to have an announcement printed and most couples are just using free social media sites like Facebook and Instagram to make their marriage known. 

Beatrice [NE] Daily Sun, December 2, 1938

Both sets of my Grandparents were married in either the courthouse or church parsonage. I've found this announcement for my paternal Grandparents. They went across the border (into Kansas) because of Grandpa's age - he was 20 and underage in Nebraska. Grandma was 18.






Art & Sadie McGrath's marriage was mentioned in the Lincoln State Journal. It completely surprised me to find it there, they were married in York. Only by searching in an online digitized newspaper would I ever have found this one. Here's another couple who were married without the expense of a big wedding. 

Lincoln [NE] State Journal, October 10, 1908

Bureau County [IL] Republican, April 6, 1871

I found this list of marriages performed in March of 1871 in Bureau County, Illinois while searching the microfilmed newspaper at the Princeton Public Library. My Second Great Grandparents are listed - "Josiah Negley, Macon to Sarah M. Lee, Macon". I posted this list a few years ago. It was all I was able to find regarding their marriage.

Bedford [PA] Gazette, October 14, 1936

John Negley and Ruth Foster's marriage was announced in the Bedford Gazette in 1836. After finding the date and the name of the paper for this on a message board, I emailed a request for a copy from the local library. They kindly sent me two paper copies, one full page and one close-up. 

Married couples very often use social media to make the big announcement. Make a note of their date and location in your family tree software.  

More clippings I have from recent newspapers include memorials of family members no longer with us. Maybe you can think of other mentions to look for about your own family members. Good luck with your search!