{"id":8080,"date":"2014-08-25T15:09:56","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T15:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=8080"},"modified":"2023-03-27T13:59:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T17:59:46","slug":"how-to-uncover-vital-record-clues-in-old-newspapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/how-to-uncover-vital-record-clues-in-old-newspapers.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Uncover Vital Record Clues in Old Newspapers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Scott Phillips starts off searching old newspapers for clues to help him find his ancestor\u2019s birth record\u2014and finds so much information that he ends up filling out a new branch of his family tree! Scott is a genealogical historian and owner of Onward To Our Past\u00ae genealogy services.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

We all know the frustration we feel when, in working on our genealogy, we can\u2019t find an elusive\u2014but important\u2014vital record for one of our ancestors. I suggest that one good approach is to search for genealogical clues in the historical newspapers from your ancestor\u2019s era.<\/p>\n

The good news is that, at times, these clues are waiting to be found in all kinds of locations throughout the newspapers. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean, based on searches I\u2019ve done in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Clues about the Birth of My Cousin<\/strong><\/p>\n

While I have a wealth of information on one of my first cousins twice removed, Joseph Vicha, I have been unable to find his actual birth document to verify the year he was born. So I set out to see what clues to his birth I might find in the newspapers. My first discovery was this divorce notice in an 1899 Cleveland newspaper, which provided me with two very useful genealogy clues. It seems that Mrs. Barbara Vicha was seeking a legal separation, divorce, and alimony from Joseph Vicha. This old news article not only lists their wedding date as 13 June 1896, it also notes that Barbara was seeking the return of her maiden name of Vomasta.<\/p>\n

\"divorce<\/a>
Cleveland Leader (Cleveland, Ohio), 8 August 1899, page 10<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These two clues\u2014her maiden name and their wedding date\u2014enabled me to do a follow-up search at Ancestry.com, where I found the marriage license for their marriage\u2014which in turn gave me the additional information of the year of his birth!<\/p>\n

Investigating More of My Family Tree<\/strong><\/p>\n

As is so often the case in genealogy, I then became interested in finding out more about not only Joseph, but his wife, Barbara (Vomasta) Vicha. One thing led to another and, several hours later, I had learned a substantial amount about this interesting family. It was like opening a picture window to life in the early Czech community of Cleveland, all through one family.<\/p>\n

As I continued my genealogy research I discovered that Barbara remarried after her divorce from Joseph. Not surprisingly it was to another Czech, with the surname of Vlk. I then did a search on Barbara Vlk and found this helpful obituary in a 1936 Cleveland newspaper. It is for a man named John Vonasta [Vomasta], and mentions that he was the \u201cbeloved brother of Barbara Vlk.\u201d This obituary also lists two nieces, complete with their married names: Edna Carroll and Gladys Baldy [Baldi].<\/p>\n

\"obituary<\/a>
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 9 October 1936, page 23<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I followed up these clues with a search of one of the City Directories for Cleveland, Ohio, dated 1891. In it I read that while the head of the household, Vaclav (later James) Vomasta, was a laborer, his son John Vomasta was listed as a cigar maker. Both were reported as living on Rock Street, which was deep in the heart of one of the largest Czech neighborhoods in Cleveland. It must have been a hardscrabble life for Vaclav since in the 1910 U.S. Census he is listed as a \u201c(street) shovel\u201d at the age of 65.<\/p>\n

Discovering More Genealogy Clues\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was another clue in John Vomasta\u2019s obituary. Did you notice that last line? It reads: \u201cNew Haven (Conn.) papers please copy.\u201d This was the Cleveland editors\u2019 way of letting the New Haven editors know this obituary would be of interest to their own readers. Why would a Cleveland cigar maker\u2019s death be of interest to readers in New Haven, Connecticut? This led me to additional searches, in which I discovered that John Vomasta was listed as a tenant in New Haven, Connecticut, in the 1920 and 1930 U.S. Censuses.<\/p>\n

I wondered why a cigar maker might be drawn to New Haven, Connecticut\u2014and so I did a bit of searching on the cigar industry there. GenealogyBank\u2019s newspapers did not disappoint me as there were literally hundreds of search results on this topic. It seems that there was quite a flourishing cigar industry in New Haven in the late 1800s and early 1900s.<\/p>\n

One example is this article from an 1899 New Haven newspaper. This article features F. D. Grave and his \u201cJudge\u2019s Cave\u201d Cigar company. The occasion was the imminent move of his \u201cwell known cigar factory\u201d to a \u201cmagnificent four-story building at Nos. 204 to 210 State Street,\u201d and the \u201cexcellent dinner and musical entertainment\u201d he gave for his 285 employees to celebrate the move. Could this have been where John Vomasta worked? After all, the 1920 and 1930 U.S. Census returns for him list his address as 440 State Street, just up the street from F. D. Grave\u2019s cigar factory.<\/p>\n

\"article<\/a>
New Haven Register (New Haven, Connecticut), 6 January 1899, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I continued researching this family, I discovered a variety of life\u2019s occurrences. One of the daughters, who was once Gladys Baldi, had remarried\u2014only to have this husband tragically die in an automobile accident slightly less than 14 months after they were married. Wanting to be complete in my genealogy research, but not expecting to find much from a marriage of less than 1 \u00bd years, I was interested when I found this 2001 obituary for Gladys K. Glaser in a Kansas City newspaper. This obituary provided me with the fact that, in spite of the short duration of her second marriage, their union produced a daughter, in addition to the son she had from her first marriage. I also learned that at the time of her passing she had seven grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, a nephew\u2014and her sister Edna was still alive.<\/p>\n

\"obituary<\/a>
Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri), 19 February 2001<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With this helpful obituary providing me with Gladys\u2019s survivors\u2019 full names and places of residence, I now had many more clues to follow up on:<\/p>\n