Fantastic Find: Ancestry's New Free Database May Help Fill Historical Gaps for Black Americans

On my way home yesterday I was listening to NPR's All Things Considered and one of their feature stories was titled:

This database could help descendants of enslaved people learn about their ancestry.*

Ancestry has made available tens of thousands of old newspaper records about formerly enslaved people. If you're wondering what sort of information can be found in this type of record, here is the explanation given by Nicka Sewell-Smith, a genealogist and senior story producer at ancestry.com:

These records are incredible because they come from approximately 38,000 newspaper articles, and the date range is from approximately 1788 to 1867. And amongst those 38,000 newspaper articles, we have the names and details of more than 183,000 formerly enslaved people in a free collection that potentially could help millions of descendants discover more about their ancestors...

With this collection, you are really getting a bird's-eye view into the everyday nature of enslavement in the United States. A lot of times, we just think about the roles of those involved in the system, and, you know, it just is corralled to the formerly enslaved and their slaveholders. But you'll also see folks who were seeking their freedom and their actual details of what they looked like, what they wore.

There are even individuals in this collection where you get to learn about them and their personality traits, like - there's one man that I loved reading about that could speak three languages. And a lot of times, folks think that the enslaved, you know, weren't educated, or they didn't have skills other just being in agriculture, but they were just varied people who had lives and being brought back to prominence with their names being in this collection.

Anyone can access the database at home and for free. All you need is just a free Ancestry account and get to searching.** This is a random sample: 

The Louisville Daily Courier, Thursday, August 11, 1859 Page 3

* You can listen to the whole thing here (4 minutes). The transcript is available here.

**This collection is called U.S., Newspapers.com™ Auctions of Enslaved People and Bounties on Freedom Seekers Index, pre-1880

 

© 2024 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Tip: Keep Checking for New Sources of Newspapers Local to Your Ancestors

One of my genealogical ground zero areas is Fairview/Anamosa, about 25 miles outside Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  While there are times when a person who dies in Fairview has an obituary in a Cedar Rapids newspaper as well as Fairview/Anamosa, it is not a given.

As time marches on I find that some localities are making historical newspapers specific to their area available online, and for free!

It turns out I'm related to huge number of people who lived in the Fairview/Anamosa area outside Cedar Rapids.  NewspaperArchive.com has long been the best place to look for Iowa newspapers (although Newspapers.com is constantly improving), and I seem to remember that in addition to a full-run of Cedar Rapids newspapers the subscription service had Fairview/Anamosa area newspapers.  But although these newspapers are no longer available at the NewspaperArchive.com site they are now at http://jonescounty.advantage-preservation.com/:

The only flaw in this system is that it seems to go caput sometime after 6pm.  I don't know if they turn off a server somewhere??

This is not brand new information regarding this location (I blogged about this service a few years back) but the collaboration they have with Advantage Preservation was not as obvious to me before as it is now.

If you don't have people from this particular area, don't despair.  Check out The Ancestor Hunt's 2016 post, "Advantage Preservation Now Hosts 238 Free Newspaper Collections with Over 2,000 Historic Newspapers."



NOTE: Here is my small collection of newspaper links that I regularly consult.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

"Will be invaluable for cleansing impure blood"

Back in the day: "All the Blood In the Body Can Be Pumped Out and Cleaned of Disease Germs," The Day Book. (Chicago, Ill.), February 05, 1914, NOON EDITION, Image 12; Image provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL; digital image, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1914-02-05/ed-1/seq-12/>

"Kidney Dialysis. What is this the stone age?"

Dr. Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy (Star Trek)

Yes, we are in the stone age.  I hate dialysis.
I'm not alone.  There is a very active message board called "I Hate Dialysis."

Still, I appreciate living in a time and place where I can get dialysis.  I also appreciate the people who continue to work on the problem of kidney failure.

Dialysis is a very recent development::

"..in 1945, a 67-year-old comatose woman regained consciousness following 11 hours of hemodialysis with the dialyzer and lived for another seven years before dying from an unrelated condition. She was the first-ever patient successfully treated with dialysis."

Before I began peritoneal dialysis in 2014 I posted about a patient surviving on peritoneal dialysis 54 days after complete kidney failure.  I've survived on it for over 3 years so they have obviously made dramatic improvements on the procedure.

There is a dialysis museum in Seattle!

Every day we get closer to solving the kidney failure problem.  Screenshot from today of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

RePost from 2015: Tip: Don't Just Rely on the Search Function When Using Newspaper Databases

"Dehesa Doings," San Diego Union (San Diego, CA), p 5, col 4, 8 Aug 1892; digital image, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com: accessed 17 Oct 2015).

The info above was found doing a "Hartley" search.  Since newspapers often had recurring columns I thought to search "Dehesa Doings" to possibly find other tidbits in other issues.  But instead I got this:

Oh, come on, I just found Dehesa Doings three minutes ago!

I am assuming the optical character recognition just doesn't read it as Dehesa Doings (and who knows what it thinks it says).  While it may not be an ongoing column like I thought, the term "Dehesa Doings" DOES appear at least once for sure!  So what should I do?

I went page by page through other issues close in time to this one.  This is a bit tedious, but not only can it help you catch information missed by OCR, it also gives you a feel for what the newspaper was like and what kind of information you can realistically expect to glean from it.

Unfortunately I haven't found a graceful way to search newspapers this way on GenealogyBank, as they don't provide an easy way to browse papers--you have to search through them, which is different.  So I narrowed down to the specific paper I wanted, and then typed in a date range (in this case San Diego Union and August 1892--alternately, you could just type in a specific day and year):

Then I ordered by Oldest (you an order by Oldest, Newest, and Best):

Note the varying quality of the scans, even in one issue (in this case, all the results in this screenshot are from the August 1, 1892 issue).

No wonder the OCR doesn't find every word from the scanned images--just look at what it has to contend with!

After looking at a number of issues I realized that "Dehesa Doings" was not a regular heading, but I could depend on page 5 in any given issue in that era for information on local people, with the leading title "Local Intelligence. In General.":

"Dehesa Doings" in the larger context.

Every newspaper database I've used has to deal with the same OCR problems.

Many states now have historic newspapers to browse through, like the Historic Oregon Newspapers.  I use this database to find my Oregon ancestors.  When a search for my 2nd great grandfather William Nosler's death notice or obituary came back with no results, I used his known death date (3 Dec 1914 in Coquille, Oregon) to narrow down and search page-by-page, issue-by-issue, to find his obituary:

No doubt the fuzzy print threw off the OCR.  This example also shows how discrepancies can occur in newspapers--the Oregon death index indicates he died on the 3rd, while this report indicates he died on the 5th.  Mrs. George Hartley is my great grandmother Minnie (Nosler) Hartley. "Dies in Coquille," The Coos Bay Times--Evening Edition (Marshfield, Oregon), 7 Dec 1914, p 1; digital image, Historic Oregon Newspapers (http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/ : accessed 17 Oct 2015).

Here is the obituary in the larger context:

These obituaries are often found later in the issue, but more well-known citizens' obituaries might be featured on the front page.

Oh, so maybe I should have searched for William H. Nosler, then?  Nope (and using capitals or not didn't matter, either):

But I just found his obituary in there!

While using Search is a great way to use newspaper databases like GenealogyBank or Historic Oregon Newspapers, it is really just the tip of the iceberg. You've got to really spend some time looking at newspapers, page by page, to know how to use them.


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Finally, Jeremiah Tibbetts' 3rd Wife's Maiden Name! Edith Mary Eisenhart

The subscription newspaper databases continue to get bigger, shedding more and more light on former mysteries.

My own post from almost 6 years ago concerned one of my 2nd great granduncles, Jeremiah "John" Wellie Tibbetts (1859-1937), apparently a love 'em and leave 'em traveling salesman, cook, and miner.

Re: TIBBETTS in Wallace
 CManczuk (View posts)
Posted: 28 Dec 2012 09:02PM
Classification: Query
Edited: 28 Dec 2012 09:55PM
Surnames: Tibbetts, Lingenfelter, Dull, Ellis, Raup

Did some more work on Jeremiah "John" Wellie (my 2nd great grand uncle) and discovered that he had at least TWO wives before ending up in Idaho, where he had 2 more wives.  

First wife was Elizabeth "Lizzie" Lingenfelter, who he married in the Indianapolis area in 1876. They got married very young (both 17) and they had two children (Mabel and Clyde). (About Lizzie and those children: Lizzie went on to marry Anthony Kuhry and they lived out their remaining years in San Diego. Her daughter Mabel Tibbetts married Edward Everett Horton and lived in San Diego the rest of her life (no children). Son Clyde Tibbetts married Blanche Smee in Long Beach, CA and was working in January 1912 as a "launch engineer"/tour guide off the coast from Rancho Palos Verdes/Los Angeles harbor, when he was washed away by a large wave/swell and was never found (he did save the tourists though!). He had an infant son by then, Paul Ellis Tibbetts, and an unborn daughter Dortha who was born after his death.) 

Anyway, I'm assuming Jeremiah then left Lizzie about 1879, and immediately took up with Flora Dull in Bremer County, Iowa, having a child (Leta) with her within a year of son Clyde's birth. Jeremiah and Flora were part of the Tibbetts family that left for San Diego, California abt 1882/1883. Jeremiah had 4 children with Flora (Leta, Mabel, Carl Oscar, and Glenn Haven, the first three in San Diego) and then left her sometime after she became pregnant with Glenn in 1888. She remained back in Iowa until the 1910's, when she came to live with Glenn in Seattle where she died in 1918. 

By 1894 his first wife Lizzie had come to San Diego and sued him for divorce on the ground for failure to provide. So he was either a bigamist or lived "in sin" with Flora. 

I think I've figured out 3rd wife/woman Edith M Ellis--she was the 2nd wife/widow of Civil War vet Daniel Dodge Ellis, and after her marriage to Tibbetts was over she went back to being called Edith Ellis (collecting civil war pension). I don't know her maiden name. She died in Marion County, Oregon in 1934, so if anyone wants to get that death cert it might have her maiden name on that. 

4th woman/wife was Myrtle Katherine Edwards, divorcee of Edward Raup. Her brother Frank J Edwards was kind of a business bigwig in Shoshone County, Idaho during that time. Not sure how legit that marriage really was, as it is not entirely clear to me that she divorced Edward Raup or was just separated, as she was back with Edward in 1920 (but then married James Bailey in 1921??). I guess Wellie met his match with that lady lol

So I knew when and where this Edith M. lived and died (born 1867 in Oregon - died 9 October 1834 in Salem, Marion, Oregon), but I didn't know her maiden name.

Well, what did I find yesterday but this lovely mention of Mrs. Edith Ellis' sister Mrs. Charles Marquess (Tallien Marie Eisenhart b. 1876) receiving news of her death.  A little more research in census and city directories in Oregon and I discovered Edith M. was originally Edith Mary Eisenhart, daughter of Lawrence Eisenhart and Mary W. Hutton.

The News-Review
(Roseburg, Oregon)
17 Oct 1934, Wed (Newspapers.com) Page 4

Olalla 

Mrs. Charles Marquise [Marquess] received word Thursday of the death of her sister, Mrs. Edith Ellis, who went to a hospital in Salem [Marion County, Oregon] last week after having spent the summer here at the home of Mrs. Marquise.

I always feel it is a minor triumph when I can figure out a woman's maiden name.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Some Notes on Ival Lenard Fister (1915-1984)

Ival Fister was one of my grandmother's brothers. Courtesy of Tom Cairns.

Ival Lenard Fister (April 4, 1915 - July 6, 1984) is one of my grandmother Margaret (Fister) Hartley's brothers.  Most of what I know about him, unfortunately, revolves around his criminal record.

The only personal anecdote from my father about Ival was that Ival once came to San Diego (in the 1960s probably), looking for money, and my grandfather George Hartley Jr. gave him some with the stipulation that he not come around anymore.

Ival's Christmas card, date unknown, probably 1930s.  Courtesy of Tom Cairns.

Ival did make the papers.  I don't know what problems he had before these newspaper stories, but it struck me that they happened only 9 months after his mother Mette Karine "Mary"s death (his father Ben Fister had died a year earlier):

Daily Illinois States Journal (Springfield)
8 Sep 1935, Sunday
Page 9, col 4
from GenealogyBank 

Escapes Jail
Ival Fister, 20-year-old prisoner charged with housebreaking, escaped from the Morgan county jail this morning by hiding behind a cell block and taking his bid for freedom while the turnkey and assistant turnkey were serving the morning rations.
A search was soon started for the youth, who in July confessed to several house robberies here.  He was being held under bond awaiting action from the November grand jury.

Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield)
21 Nov 1935, Thursday
Page 19, col 8
from GenealogyBank

Ival L. Fister, 21, who escaped from the Morgan county jail on Sept. 7, has been arrested by police at St. Joseph, Mo.  His identity was established by means of fingerprints sent ot Washinton, D. C. previous to Fister's jail break here.

The fugitive was arrested at St. Joseph, Mo., on charges of attempted robbery.  State's Attorney W. B. Absher stated today that if Fister secured an acquittal in Missouri, he will be returned here to face a charge of house burglary.

Daily Illinois States Journal (Springfield)
12 Dec 1935, Thurs
Page 13, col 8
from GenealogyBank 

Morgan Sheriff Takes 2 Men to Penitentiary
Jacksonville, Dec. 11. - Clarence Miller, Jacsonville, recently sentenced to an indeterminate term at the Menard penitentiary, and Ival L. Fister, confessed burglar, were taken to Menard today by Sheriff Kenneth Woods.  Miller was found guilty of a part in the recent shooting of Sheriff Woods.

Daily Illinois States Journal (Springfield)
22 Apr 1939, Saturday
Page 4, col 1
from GenealogyBank 

to receive hearing on Monday by the states parole board:
"Morgan county.--Kenneth Busch, Ival L. Fister."

Daily Illinois States Journal (Springfield)
27 Apr 1940, Saturday
page 3, col 8
from GenealogyBank 

to receive hearing states parole board:
"Harry Wilson and Ival L. Fister, both of Morgan county,"

The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
9 Aug 1942, Sun
Page 4
from Newspapers.com 

Watch Girl's Home and Catch Convict
Philadelphia, Aug. 8. (AP) - A Washington girl's love for a fugitive convict unwittingly brought about his capture, detectives testified today. 

The story was told to Justice of the Peace Howard C. Meredith, who ordered Ival L. Fister, 27, turned over to Virginia officers. 

Recently Arlington county authorities learned that a young woman known to be friendly with Fister had quit her Washington job and come to Philadelphia, gaining employment as a domestic in a suburban Merion home. 

They followed and with local officers took up watch outside the place the girl worked.
Last night, the detectives said, Fister alighted from a bus and came to the apartment house.  He was arrested. 

Police added they understood he also was wanted in Oregon on a homicide charge.

Evening Star (Washington, DC)
15 Aug 1942, Saturday
Page 16, col 4
from GenealogyBank 

Arlington Jail Fugitive gets 30-Year Sentence
Ival L. Fister, 27, yesterday was sentenced to 10 years each on three counts of burglary by Judge Walter T. McCarthy in Arlington County Circuit Court.  The sentences are to run consecutively. Fister will serve his sentence in the Virginia State Penitentiary.
The prisoner, who previously had pleaded guilty, escaped from the Arlington County jail in January by cutting through his cell bars with several razor blades and then soaping his body to squirm through a narrow space.
He was seized August 7 by Detective Capt. Hugh C. Jones in Ardmore, Pa., after Capt. Jones had trace the man through a Washington girl.  The girl, police said, gave up her job here and went to Philadelphia where she was employed as a domestic.  Fister was taken into custody at the girl's apartment by police who were watching the place.  

Daily Illinois States Journal (Springfield)
6 Jul 1961, Thurs
Page 9, col 1
from GenealogyBank 

granted parole
"Ival L. Fister of Morgan County, who has served 5 years and 10 months of 1 year to life sentence at Menard,"

Ival died in Chicago, Cook, Illinois on July 6, 1984.  It is unknown to me if he had any wives, girlfriends, or children.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

New-To-Me Fantastic Find: Family Search "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014" Collection

I suspect this database came out in 2014, but it is new to me!  I use GenealogyBank constantly for obituaries and other newspaper items pertaining to my ancestors.  Since I have the subscription it did not occur to me to look for a source that indexes these obituaries, but FamilySearch did: "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014:" 

Index and images of obituaries from thousands of newspapers throughout the United States. Records and images are being published as they become available. This collection is created in partnership with www.GenealogyBank.com. Over 23 million records in this collection were indexed by a computer; there may be some errors. Please help us fix these records by reporting them through the Errors? button.

This database might be effective in the same way that I think FindAGrave is more easily searched at Ancestry than at FindAGrave itself, i.e. more search functionality at FamilySearch if a search on GenealogyBank itself doesn't render a result.

This is definitely a great resource for anyone that doesn't have a subscription to GenealogyBank.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Two Helpful Videos from Ohio History About Using "Chronicling America" Newspapers

Today has turned out to be a day for administrative tasks (i.e. my ongoing location cleanup) and for brushing up on search techniques.

I found a few nice videos from the Ohio History YouTube channel with great tips to use while searching content in Chonicling America (or any other newspaper database).

"Historical vocabulary are the words used by people living at the time to describe contemporary people, places and events. Watch this video to learn more about historical vocabulary and why it is important to use it while searching Chronicling America and other digital newspaper resources."

"Watch this video to learn some tips for working with online translation tools in order to access the information contained in foreign-language newspapers on Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov). You may also find this video helpful if you’re working with other foreign-language printed materials."

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Opal May Slater (1890 - 1973) Part 2

Looking through newspapers I was able to find out more about Opal's teaching career before she left for Harvard than was apparent using city directories and census lists.

In 1913 she was granted a Teacher's Certificate for second grade in Kansas according to The Eureka Herald and Greenwood County Republican. 

[Source: Newspapers.com]

Later that year the same newspaper's social pages identified Opal as a teacher at Hamilton Schools while reporting on her visit to her uncle James Slater.

[Source: Newspapers.com]

The next time I found Opal's name was in a May of 1916 list of people receiving first grade Teachers' Certificates in  The Santa Fe New Mexican.

[Source: Newspapers.com]

From this clipping from The Clayton Citizen we learn Opal's job in New Mexico was Principal of the local high school.

[Source: Newspapers.com]

[Detail of Union County, New Mexico, including Clayton from Clason's Guide Map Of New Mexico. Published By The Clason Map Co. Denver, Colorado. Copyrighted 1915 by The Clason Map Co. Denver, Colo. 1916 Edition. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

Here's another story from the same source mentioned Opal as the assistant director of the school play.*

[Source: Newspapers.com]

*This isn't the first time I found Opal connected with the stage as you can see in this 1912 clipping from The Denver Rocky Mountain News. (And that's not counting her interest in Aesthetic Dance.)

[Source: GenealogyBank.com]

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Throwback Thursday: Newspapers and Publications Published in San Diego 1887-1888

This is taken from collection of digitized city directories for San Diego in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  "Maxwell's Directory of San Diego City and County for 1887-1888" (San Diego, CA: Geo. W. Maxwell, 1888), page 29; digital image, sandiegopubliclibrary at Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/stream/maxwellsdirect8700geow#page/n39/mode/2up : 13 Jul 2017).

One of the things I love about old city directories is that they can contain some great leads on where to look for additional contemporary research in an area.

Crop closeup of the newspapers and publications listed in the previous image.  GenealogyBank has quite a few.

GenealogyBank's San Diego holdings as of 13 July 2017.

Note: The California Digital Newspaper Collection also has some issues of the Coronado Mercury between 16 May 1887 - 25 July 1896 (630 issues).




© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Wedding Day: Jane J. O'Brien (1876 - 1974) and Roy O'Connor Trainer (1873 - 1948)

While I'm visiting her here in France I've been looking at what can be learned about my best friend Bonnie's ancestors using Newspapers.com. Since several generations of her mother's lineage lived in Fort Worth, Indiana, there's quite a bit, starting with this report of the marriage of her grandparents which took place on August 19, 1902.

[20 Aug 1902, Page 5 - Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel at Newspapers.com]

Although her mother's family passed down lots of photos, stories, mementos and even a genealogical scrapbook created by her Aunt Janette, this clipping had quite a few details about that long-ago day that were new to Bonnie

Here's a photo of Fort Wayne's Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception where the ceremony took place. The priest who married the couple was Father William D. Sullivan who had just been ordained the previous May.

[Fort Wayne Indiana~Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception~Catholic Church~1907.

Source: HipPostcard.com]

There must have been pictures of the wedding party in the family's collection, but none seem to have made their way to France. In their place here's a portrait of Jennie taken about 1900 followed by the 1902 city directory entry for the law firm she had worked for.

[Courtesy of Bonnie Groves Poppy]

[Fort Wayne, Indiana, city directory by R.L. Polk & Co.1902. Source: Archive.org.]

There doesn't appear to be an available picture of Roy as a young man however I did find an earlier photo of the factory where he worked.

[From c.1890 Fort Wayne (Packard) Organ Factory catalog.

Source: The Packard Organ]

From the description of her attire as "a costume of tan silk mull, over turquoise silk taffeta" it's clear that Jennie didn't wear a typical white wedding dress. And the description of her hat as "a large white beaver, with ostrich plumes and turquoise velvet trimmings" makes me hope that a wedding photo is forthcoming!

I imagine Jennie's dress would have had the same general lines as this 1902 wedding dress worn by a bride in Montana.

[The Montana Historical Society Collection Wedding Dresses Pinterest Board]

As for the fashionable hat shapes in 1902 here are some Easter bonnets.

[The Delineator "Pretty Hats for Easter" 1902 from Pinterest]

However we should keep in mind that Jennie's large hat was described as white beaver which means it was furry (whether real or artificial material is unclear) This black beaver hat (from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and described as early 20th century and probably later than 1902) shows the texture of the fur contrasted with ostrich feathers.

[Woman's Hat, Label Strawbridge & Clothier, Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Emily W. Cunningham]

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

From the Probate Files: Not Our Benjamin Porter (Alas!)

Last August Christine posted about a death notice for a Benjamin Porter who died in 1829 that she had found through our membership in the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) and she wondered if he was her fifth (my fourth) great grandfather who disappears from records after the 1820 U.S. Census.

Casting about for today's post,* I came across his profile on our family tree and decided to see if I could find anything more on NEHGS's site and found the note below attached to the first page of the probate file for the Benjamin Porter of Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

[Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized mages provided by FamilySearch.org)

https://www.americanancestors.org/DB536/i/14465/17770:2/38361465]

To the Honerable P. P Fay Judge of probate
for the County of Middlesex
Not wishing to administer on the estate of
Benjamin Porter my late husband I recommend
Solomon Rugg (my son in law) to that trust
                                 Prudence Porter

As you see below, "our" Benjamin Porter's wife was Lydia Wilcox who married a second time in 1821 and survived until 1869.

So I'm off to correct our family tree.


*While looking for a respite from my search for Watts ancestors in the probate records of Morgan County, Georgia.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Fantastic Find: The Ancestor Hunt Can Help You Find U.S. Newspapers

"Roy Takeno (far left), with Yuichi Hirata and Nabou Samamura, standing in front of the Office of Reports Free Press. Two men are reading the Los Angeles Times newspaper."  Adams, Ansel, photographer. Roy Takeno, editor, and group reading paper in front of office, Manzanar Relocation Center, California / photograph by Ansel Adams. California Manzanar, 1943. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2002696016/. (Accessed March 02, 2017.)

If you are always on the lookout for updated links to historic U.S. newspapers like I am, you might find the research bonanza over at The Ancestor Hunt (by Arizona research Kenneth R Marks) very helpful.  Most states are covered, and most of each link collection has been updated within the past year.

You can even take some lessons on researching newspapers and getting the most out of your searches!

"Pomp Hall, Negro tenant farmer, reading newspaper to which he subscribes. Creek County, Oklahoma." Lee, Russell, photographer. Pomp Hall, Negro tenant farmer, reading newspaper to which he subscribes. Creek County, Oklahoma. See general caption number 23. Creek County Oklahoma, 1940. Feb. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/fsa2000016365/PP/. (Accessed March 02, 2017.)

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Searching for Matilda Biddle Porter in the Newspapers Using "Data Visualization: Journalism's Voyage West"

My 3rd great grandmother Matilda (Biddle) Porter (1846-1927) died in Lincoln County, Oregon. After she and Orville Tracy Porter divorced in 1888 she was found living with son Chester Porter in 1900 in Albany, Linn, Oregon (which she rented), and then with married daughter Alice in 1910 at 705 West Fifth Street, Albany, Linn, Oregon.  By 1920 she was renting and living alone on 112 Olive Street, Newport City, Lincoln, Oregon.  Seven years later she died in that county.

Despite using a range of terms, I did not get any results for her in my subscription databases (Newspapers, NewspaperArchive, and GenealogyBank) nor in the free Historic Oregon Newspapers (with the exception of her divorce notice in 1888).


What newspapers were known to be in Lincoln around the time she lived and died there?  One can check the Library of Congress' U.S. Newspaper Directory this way:

But I need visuals!

Instead, I decided to use a visualization of that information from "Data Visualization: Journalism's Voyage West (I did a Fantastic Find post of this resource last year).

This visualization plots over 140,000 newspapers published over three centuries in the United States. The data comes from the Library of Congress' "Chronicling America" project, which maintains a regularly updated directory of newspapers. 

Closeup of Oregon, with the year slider at 1930.  The newspapers published in Lincoln, Oregon (at least known by the Library of Congress) were the "Newport journal" and "Yaquina Bay news," neither of which appear to be digitized online anywhere (yet). Clicking on the newspaper titles takes you to the LOC Chronicling America website.

Using the "Libraries that Have It" tab reveals that the "Univ of Oregon Libr, Eguene, OR" has "Newport journal".

"Univ of Oregon Libr, Eguene, OR" has "Yaquina Bay news" as well.

I assume this means the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon.  The UO libraries include Knight Library, possibly the first place I should check for the microfilm of these newspapers.

Both newspapers are at the Knight Library.

Ooh, the microfilm can be borrowed (interlibrary loan)?  Nice.

So at least now I have a lead on where to go and who to contact in order to search these non-digitized newspapers.

If I write up a research plan for additional research on Matilda I can use this information.



© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.