{"id":4974,"date":"2013-10-15T16:19:55","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T16:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=4974"},"modified":"2021-04-21T11:10:39","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:10:39","slug":"missing-men-lost-husband-ads-in-newspapers-for-genealogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/missing-men-lost-husband-ads-in-newspapers-for-genealogy.html","title":{"rendered":"Missing Men: Lost Husband Ads in Newspapers for Genealogy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this blog post, Gena Philibert-Ortega explores a family history resource in old newspapers that may surprise you: missing husband ads. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book <\/em>\u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.<\/span><\/em>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Internet, text messaging, email, cell phones, social media and instant messaging…today we take for granted the convenience and peace of mind that having access to a person at the drop of a hat\u201424 hours a day, 7 days a week\u2014brings. When I was a teenager my parents knew that if I drove somewhere they would not hear from me again until I returned home. If I was going to be late I would find a telephone booth and call but there was no way to be in touch constantly. In today\u2019s world, parents panic if they don\u2019t get an immediate response from their cell phone-attached youngsters.<\/p>\n

Imagine a time when, if someone left the house and didn\u2019t return, there were few ways to track them down.<\/p>\n

Immigrant Disappearances<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was confronted with this reality years ago when I researched a client\u2019s grandfather who had come to the United States in the early 20th century to seek out a better life for his family. The idea, like for many immigrants, was that he would emigrate first to find work and then make enough money to bring his wife and children over to their new home.<\/p>\n

Instead they never heard from him again. No one knew what happened to him. The family wasn\u2019t sure if he had died en route or years after arriving in America. Back at the time he disappeared, there was little that could be done to find a person who simply vanished into thin air. In some cases leaving without a trace was seen as a preferable option to a difficult or expensive divorce proceeding. In other tragic cases, an unfortunate mishap or act of violence was the reason for an unintended disappearance.<\/p>\n

Missing Husband Newspaper Ads<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what did 19th and 20th century wives do when their husbands left and never returned? They used the newspaper. Specific newspaper articles targeting missing husbands existed, as in the case of the Jewish Daily Forward<\/em>, which for a time included a column entitled the \u201cGallery of Missing Men\u201d that provided descriptions and photos of husbands who had deserted their wives.<\/p>\n

Newspapers also provided women the option of taking out a personal advertisement in the classifieds asking for the public\u2019s help in finding their missing husbands.<\/p>\n

These missing husband newspaper ads might be a surprising source of family history information, helping you fill in some details about your ancestors that you can\u2019t find elsewhere.<\/p>\n

[search_box]<\/p>\n

Consider these two advertisements found in a 1907 Texas newspaper from GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>, both placed by women pleading for the public\u2019s help in finding their husbands.<\/p>\n

\"missing<\/a>
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 12 September 1907, page 8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the case of the second advertisement placed by Mrs. H. L. Hooyer, her husband Henry was a harness maker who one day disappeared. In a previous advertisement more details of H. L. Hooyer were given, including a physical description and what he was wearing when he disappeared.<\/p>\n

\"missing<\/a>
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 28 August 1907, page 8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mrs. H. L. Hooyer placed multiple advertisements in the Dallas Morning News<\/em> looking for her husband. His union magazine also carried notices of his disappearance. An article in the October 1907 The Leather Worker\u2019s Journal<\/em> (available from Google Books) from the Dallas Chief of Police provided information as well as a $50 reward. (See: http:\/\/bit.ly\/1gfsW1C<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"missing<\/a>
The Leather Workers\u2019 Journal, October 1907. Credit: Google Books.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another personal notice in The Leather Workers\u2019 Journal<\/em> stated that the family feared Hooyer had been a victim of foul play, with an unconfirmed report of his drowning in Nebraska. Conducting a quick search for H. L. Hooyer in GenealogyBank confirms that he had been involved in at least one past criminal court case, as well as a civil case, months prior to his disappearance. Whether Henry did meet with an untimely death or not, his wife is listed in subsequent city directories and in the 1910 U.S. Census as a widow.<\/p>\n

Find Lost Ancestors in Missing Person Ads <\/strong><\/p>\n

In an era when social media meant a daily or weekly newspaper, personal advertisements alerted the community to those who went missing. For wives who found themselves suddenly alone, the classifieds were one of their only options for seeking help locating their missing husbands.<\/p>\n

Genealogy Search Tip:<\/em><\/strong> Remember, newspapers are full of family history information\u2014which sometimes turns up in the most unexpected places. Don\u2019t rule out the classified ads when searching newspapers; your distressed ancestor may have placed an ad for her missing husband, providing personal details to help fill out your family tree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega explores a family history resource in old newspapers that may surprise you: missing husband ads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":15015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[12,2719,5236,2020],"class_list":["post-4974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-genealogy","tag-genealogy-search-tips","tag-missing-husband-ads","tag-newspaper-archives"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/illustration-1015-2013-marriage-symbol.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70427,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4974\/revisions\/70427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}