In addition to its intended use, the daily newspaper serves as wrapping paper, packing material, and liner for pets' cages. And as my husband (a news photographer) reminds me, a newspaper is one of the few products that is completely redesigned every day. Genealogists who research only the obituary page will miss other valuable resources.
Obituaries
An "obit" may be the only record of death that you find, especially since civil death registration did not begin until the 1900s. An obit may include the name, age, and birth date of the deceased; parents' names; maiden name, if female; where died; date of death; cause of death; name of spouse and children or survivors; religious affiliation (or allusion to church where married or providing funeral services, or the cemetery of interment); place of burial, if any (there won't be any if, for example, the person was cremated or died in war or at sea); whether the body will be transported to another area or state for burial; military service (or allusion to membership in veterans' group or group honor guard); occupation or name of employer; club or fraternal memberships.
Most obits, however, do not include this much data, and some people do not have obituaries. While the obit can provide many genealogical clues, the deceased possessed the most accurate details. Whoever provided details to the newspaper may have given incorrect data (or the newspaper may have printed it incorrectly). Since the newspaper is a secondary source, corroborate your findings with other sources, if possible.
As a volunteer at my local library, I am indexing newspaper obits for the year 1958. I frequently see the following type of obit: "Mrs. John Jones died Tuesday at her home in this city." A person who clips this obit and stashes it or sends it to a relative in another town may not realize the problems it causes. Who is Mrs. John Jones? We don't know her given or maiden names, the date of death, what city she lived in, or the date, name, and place of publication of the paper.
Check for a notice of thanks, published after the death, which may name specific people who helped the family, such as a doctor, hospital, church members, etc. Also, check on the anniversary of the death for a memorial notice which may have been placed by family members.
Necrologies may be published in local newspapers near the end of the year, listing everyone who died in the town during the year. I know of one newspaper that published a list of members of the county's Early Settler's Association who had died during the year. The lists typically provide the age, name of the spouse, place of residence, and the year the deceased first came to the county. A necrology may list people who were interred in a cemetery that no longer exists and has no known records.
Marriage Notices
Both marriage notices and the names of people who have applied for marriage licenses are frequently published, but beware of incorrect information. For instance, the Joliet, Illinois Republic of Saturday, August 26, 1882, mentioned the wedding of Alice H. Geiss and Horace Yardace. The September 2 edition listed the groom as Horace G. Jordan. The Joliet, Illinois News weekly edition of Friday, February 17, 1893, listed marriage licenses for George Pester to Mary Graser and August Heiden to Ida Paul. The weekly edition of Friday, February 24, lists the marriage of George Pester to Miss Graham and August Heydon to Ida Paul.
As with other vital statistics, the listing of marriage notices in the newspaper may predate the civil registration of marriages by several years. Check for anniversary notices, especially at such milestones as the twenty-fifth or fiftieth anniversaries.
Legal Notices
You may find lists of court jurors, bills paid by the town government, divorce notices, wills filed for probate, estate or tax/sheriff's sales, etc. Also, check for guardianship or name changes that could signify an adoption.
Advertisements
Ads for local shopkeepers will give you an idea of where your ancestors purchased goods and how much they cost at the time. The proprietors may have left ledger books that have been preserved—perhaps your ancestor is listed in them.
While searching a newspaper of Washington, Pennsylvania, I found an ad for a local wagonmaker. Since my ancestor was a blacksmith, I wondered if he could have worked for this shop. Later research into a court case revealed testimony from my ancestor's wife, who stated that her husband learned his trade at this establishment. The ad provides a personal angle.
Social Items
Newspapers of larger cities may include columns of local news from smaller communities, such as birth, death, and marriage notices, changes in residence, visitors in town, political news, and local gossip. Often, family relationships are given. Consider these items that appeared in the Joliet, Illinois, Weekly News, July 10, 1910, issue in the news column from Monee, Illinois.
Miss Martha Zirzow and niece Miss Elsie Brandenberg of Chicago… [were vacationing] at the home of the former's father, John Zirzow; Charlie Brandenberg of Chicago visited at the home of his grandfather, John Zirzow; Miss Ida Zirzow visited at the home of her sister, Mrs. Brandenberg, of Chicago; Mr. and Mrs. Willie Brandenberg of South Milwaukee are (visiting at the home of) her father, John Zirzow.
The August 4, 1910, edition tells of a "world traveler": August Boehl has been employed by the J.I. Case Threshing Machine Co. to introduce machinery and has gone to Odessa, Russia, in Europe… he expects to be absent three years.
The September 1, 1910, edition lists kinfolk who lived elsewhere; Frank Gaines visited his brother Perry in Brook, Indiana; William Deutsche and daughter Maude visited his brother August in Stuttgart, Arkansas.
Newspapers also listed parties, showers, parades, ice cream socials, who was sick, and similar items, and lists of graduates and unclaimed letters.
News
News can be of local interest (fires, floods, natural disasters, murders, explosions, bank embezzlement) or can show the local angle on a national story (a list of contributors to earthquake relief in 1906 San Francisco). Political appointees were regularly listed. Newspapers of the past often espoused certain political parties; news of the opposing parties or their members rated only cursory mention, if any.
Ethnic Press
Check for an ethnic newspaper in your location of interest. You are more likely to find mention of your immigrant ancestor's obituary in the ethnic paper than in a large (English-language) daily. Even if you do not know the language, you may still be able to recognize your ancestor's name in print.
In Chicago, a Polish-language newspaper, the Dziennik Chicagoski, was published for more than eighty years. The Polish Museum of America in Chicago has a complete run, and the Polish Genealogical Society (PGS) has published a series of volumes indexing Polish obits. The PGS has also published a book showing how to use these obits in research, even if you do not know Polish.
A pamphlet published by the Allen County, Indiana, Public Library, provides examples from ethnic newspapers for the German, Polish, and Swedish language press in the United States.
Specialized Press
A newspaper of a specific trade or labor union may mention your ancestor. I have a clipping from my grandfather's employer's newsletter, published sometime during World War II. The clipping is titled "Charlie Herrick's Three-Man Army" and mentions Grandpa and his three sons (my dad and uncles) who were overseas.
How to Use Newspapers
1. Go through the entire paper to become familiar with the format; you will then know where to look for certain types of news. Newspapers did not always utilize "departments"; you may find a death notice anywhere. Be careful not to miss the small news items among the serialized stories and patent medicine ads of the turn of the century.
2. Check for an index or abstract of the paper. What was included in the publication? All names? Obits only?
3. Check all newspapers in a geographical area. Look for a paper serving a specific area or town, and then broaden the search to include a paper of the next-largest town or county seat. Check morning and evening editions, weekly and ethnic papers, and papers with opposing political views.
4. Check "across the border" if your ancestor lived close to a large city outside his county or state of residence. For example, there will be no Illinois death certificate for a resident who died in an Indiana hospital.
5. Check the local columns of larger city newspapers.
6. Copy the complete citation or note it on the clipping: name of the newspaper; date, city and state of publication; page number; where the newspaper was found.
7. Look for news items marked "special" or "please copy." If you see a notation on an Iowa obit that says, "Anytown IL please copy," check for relatives or friends in Anytown, which may have been a previous place of residence.
Present-day Sources
To find others who may be searching your line, write to the editor of the paper in your geographical area of interest. Ask to have your letter published. Or, consider running an ad. You can also send a query to the genealogical columnist in your geographical area of interest. Review the correspondence techniques described in this column in the March/April 1994 issue of Ancestry: keep it simple, and do not include charts or complicated relationships to sort out.
Where to Find Newspapers
Many states have bibliographies that tell what newspapers have been published, what dates are available, and where microform or original issues are located.
Illinois Libraries, a publication of the Illinois State Library, runs an issue every few years on "Newspapers in the Illinois State Historical Library." The Periodical Source Index (PERSI) published by the Allen County Public Library and the Genealogical Periodical Annual Index (GPAI) published by Heritage Books lists genealogical periodicals that have published abstracts or excerpts from local papers.
The Gale Directory of Publications (formerly Ayer's Directory of Publications) is published annually. Check Ancestry's The Source, especially the "Newspapers" chapter. Also see the most recent catalog from University Microfilms of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Check state guides to resources. Often newspapers are located in the state library, historical society, or other state agency. They may send the film to your local library via interlibrary loan, or look up an obit if you provide certain information.
Check your county or community library. Know what areas and time spans are covered and whether there is an index to obits or other abstraction project. The newspaper office "morgue" may have back issues in bound volumes or on film. Did the paper change names or merge with another paper? Did the paper publish in separate community "zones," with different information in each zone?
Check newspapers thoroughly, and read all about it!
Ancestry Magazine
