Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Read All About It!

Have you read a newspaper lately? Maybe. But it’s more likely you get your dose of the daily news via the Internet or television. But in days past, our ancestors read published papers which carried the news of happenings at home and far afield. When you read historic newspaper accounts of their  lives, your ancestors become more real.

Yesterday afternoon, I found the following headline about my mother (I’m saving the article for another post):

Fairbanks (AK) Daily News-Miner, March 21, 1964, page 7
Accessed at NewspaperArchive.com, 15 August 2011.

This morning Randy Seaver of GeneaMusings gave us the following Tuesday's Tip:

Use the Old Fulton NY Post Cards website (www.FultonHistory.com/Fulton.html) to search for articles in New York newspapers.

I’d heard of the site before, but had never taken the time to look at it. Since my YAWMAN ancestors came through New York, I decided to check it out today.

I found the following news about the sad deaths of several YAWMAN children:

The Caledonia [NY] Advertiser, January 21, 1886

And the following marriage:

The Caledonia [NY] Advertiser-Era, January 22, 1925

And a high school photo:

The Caledonia [NY] Advertiser, February 22, 1934

And a lucky draw:

The Caledonia [NY] Advertiser-Era, October 15, 1885

And there were many more articles as well!

This is not the first day I’ve spent hours looking at old newspapers, and I’m sure it won’t be the last!

If you’re not reading historical newspapers, you’re missing out on a wonderful source of genealogical and historical information about your ancestors. Check out Cyndi’s List for lots of newspaper resources.

© 2011 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research