{"id":56027,"date":"2020-02-05T11:43:37","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T16:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=56027"},"modified":"2023-09-27T11:33:42","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T15:33:42","slug":"today-in-history-local-news-about-your-ancestors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/today-in-history-local-news-about-your-ancestors.html","title":{"rendered":"Today in History: Local News about Your Ancestors?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega writes about an unexpected source of family history information: those \u201c25 Years Ago\u201d newspaper columns. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Have you seen those newspaper articles that provide snippets of what was happening decades prior, such as 25, 50, or 100 years ago? These newspaper articles provide historical highlights for global or local events over the decades.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), 29 July 1990, page 62<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But what does this have to do with genealogy? Sure, it\u2019s nice to have that historical information \u2013 but couldn\u2019t you find the same thing with a few Google searches?<\/p>\n

In some cases, smaller city and town newspapers run these types of articles \u2013 but instead of worldwide historical events such as inventions, wars, and the deaths of political and military figures, they print what was happening to the people of the community the paper serves. These mentions can include everything from marriages and deaths to local history and events.<\/p>\n

What this provides for you as a researcher is one more opportunity to find information where you least expect it. I was recently lecturing to a group of family historians on the importance of newspaper research, and a few participants mentioned finding information including a death date and a maiden name by reading these \u201cX Years Ago Today\u201d newspaper articles.<\/p>\n

These articles can also be important in cases where your access to that specific newspaper from that earlier date, decades previous, is not available online.<\/p>\n

Search Tip:<\/em><\/strong> Adding a date range to your search can be an important technique to focus and narrow your search for an ancestor with a common name, but in the case of these \u201cToday in History\u201d articles an ancestor might be mentioned 100 years after they died. Keep that in mind as you craft possible newspaper searches.<\/p>\n

25 Years Ago<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s one example of the usefulness of this type of newspaper article. The Trenton Evening Times<\/em> on 6 February 1921 published this column, \u201cTrenton 25 Years Ago,\u201d which is a \u201cReview of the Happenings of That Period, with Comments on the People and Incidents That Made Up the News of the Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey), 6 February 1921, page 25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Look at that entry for February 7, a mention of a local death.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey), 6 February 1921, page 25<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, what did you learn about Mary Schenck? She was about 80 years of age when she died, placing her birth at about 1816. She worked as a \u201cjanitress\u201d at the Odd Fellows Hall, but when she became too \u201cfeeble to work\u201d she lived there at the building which was at Hamilton Square. While her birth year is too early for a New Jersey birth certificate (if that\u2019s where she was born), you should be able to find a death certificate for her.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s nice is that not only do we have some information to follow up on, but we also have her occupational information \u2013 which is often difficult to find. In addition, if that group of Odd Fellows kept records, there\u2019s a chance that the decision to allow her to live there will be mentioned. All this information for a single woman who appears to have been impoverished in 1896! Here she is being mentioned in 1921. These types of articles can remind the reader of the important people in history, but they can also mention the everyday people in the community.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that this edition of \u201c25 Years Ago\u201d also includes details of four weddings with the names of the couples and their parents. It\u2019s possible that the newspaper might also have articles about these couples\u2019 25th wedding anniversaries, if applicable.<\/p>\n

50 Years Ago<\/strong><\/p>\n

This 1914 newspaper article from Aberdeen, South Dakota, is a little different from the standard article detailing what happened \u201con this day\u201d decades earlier. In this case, in honor of Lincoln\u2019s birthday, it asks Civil War veterans to share what they were doing on February 12th, 50 years ago.<\/p>\n

One of the men listed was \u201cCity Auditor F. W. Raymond of the Thirty-sixth Illinois was stationed at Columbus, Ky., in the position of chief clerk in the post quartermaster\u2019s department fifty years ago today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Aberdeen Daily News (Aberdeen, South Dakota), 12 February 1914, page 5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fifty years after the Civil War, here we find mention of these veterans and their service. If you were researching them, not only do you now have this military information to follow up on but if you weren\u2019t sure of when they died, you know that they were at least living on 12 February 1914 and could search after that date.<\/p>\n

10, 25, 50, 100 Years Ago Today<\/strong><\/p>\n

A look back in time for a specific time frame is great, but what about multiple jumps back in time?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Repository (Canton, Ohio), 30 May 1936, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This Canton, Ohio, \u201cUp through a Century\u201d newspaper column reports that 10 years previously, 12-year-old Linden Arnold saved his friend Adrian Brown from drowning in the canal, while 25 years ago the \u201coldest and youngest veterans of the Civil War, Jacob B. Shotts, 79, and J. Frazier Willits, 62, were neighbors on Prospect ave.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it would seem nothing is insignificant for these columns, such as a short mention that Mrs. E. D. Ely of Louisiana was visiting her mother, Mrs. Harris Reynolds, 50 years ago. The importance of this for a researcher is that \u201cReynolds\u201d could be Mrs. E. D. Ely\u2019s maiden name \u2013 emphasis on \u201ccould be\u201d since Harris Reynolds may not be her father but instead her mother\u2019s subsequent husband. Finally, the 100 years ago fact in this column details the stage lines of the time, which is a helpful clue if you\u2019re trying to figure out how your ancestor got from point A to Point B in Ohio.<\/p>\n

What Happened 50 Years Ago?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to focus your search on the specific years that your ancestor was alive in order to find a mention of a marriage license application or obituary \u2013 but in reality, other lesser-known newspaper articles may hold the information you need long after your ancestor died. People love nostalgia, and newspapers deliver this with lists of what happened in their community\u2019s history. Those persons mentioned in these articles might just include your ancestor or something that affected their life.<\/p>\n

Come do a search in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> today and see what you might find!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega writes about an unexpected source of family history information: those \u201c25 Years Ago\u201d newspaper columns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":56059,"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":[12,2719,2020],"class_list":["post-56027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-genealogy","tag-genealogy-search-tips","tag-newspaper-archives"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/photo-0205-2020-featured-graphic-25-years-ago.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56027","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=56027"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94903,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56027\/revisions\/94903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}