In a number of newspapers in the late 1800s and early 1900s, there would be a section of "Society News" which would tell of the visitings of various residents and their relatives, parties held, families moving away, etc. In large city newspapers, these would probably deal more with those in the upper social class, but there might also be sections for those smaller towns and communities in the reading area dealing with 'the regular folk'.
Most of the time, this is where you can find birth announcements, wedding news, and death information. And if you have access to a local paper where a good section of your people reside, it can become a goldmine and wonderful research tool. I recently used the society and personal news columns of a town newspaper to find a family surname.
Edward had married twice - once to Nannie, who died in the 1880s, and again to Mollie in 1891. By Nannie, he had two children, one of whom (Julia) survived into adulthood and the other (Mary) died as an infant. The death notice for Mary said that her mother was R Nannie, but I did not have Nannie's surname.
In my researching, I had not yet found Edward's death date or burial site, nor did I have the same information for Nannie. I noticed recently that the digital newspaper resource that I subscribe to added the newspaper where the family initially lived, so off I went.
I never did find any information on Edward, but I eventually found a notation on Julia's death. I am hoping that an obituary for Julia in the larger city where she resided in adulthood will reveal where she is buried and hopefully will point me towards where her parents are buried.
Last weekend, I again entered Julia's name into the search and came across a hit in the personals that I had not noticed before - a reference to Julia and another woman (Ella) in town for their cousin's (Anna) funeral. I knew that Julia only had one current surviving cousin from her father's side of the family, so these had to be from her mother's side. Using these other womens' names as searching points, I finally was able to identify four sisters - R Nannie (Julia's mother), Mary (Ella's mother), Sarah (Anna's mother), and Julia. None of the information I had found, however, offered their birth surname.
Using the sister Julia, I then began searching the census for that town. I knew the approximate birth years of R Nannie and Sarah and used the census to find Mary's, as she had a very unique married surname. I pulled up every Julia in 1860 in that town to find a family that also included sisters R Nannie, Sarah, and Mary with the ages I had. It took about an hour to finally narrow down the family and surname. R Nannie was known/listed as Ruth Anna when growing up.
So now I have Edward's wife's full name - all thanks to a town newspaper's society and personals columns.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
closings
This year, I've had to rearrange somewhat where and when to do some research. No big deal for me, but it could have been a bit of a disaster if I hadn't looked a few things up.
Point 1 - my state archives and genealogy library were closed for almost two months this year due to renovations. I did not know this. Luckily, I hadn't tried to visit them, but I had just found their blogs and learned that they were closed. Since the archives are still undergoing renovations, I check in every now and then to see how it's going. Good thing I checked this past Friday, as I was going to go the library section on Saturday and found out that the entire building was to be closed due to continuing renovation work.
Point 2 - I am heading for Georgia in late August and pulled up the local library that I always visit. Found out that a portion of the library - including the genealogy section - is to be unavailable for the next several weeks due to renovations. It looks like they will be finished before my trip, but it is something to keep an eye on in case the work overruns into my trip timetable and then I can make plans to visit another library.
Just about every public county library has a website. Use google to find them and hopefully you won't run into a closed library.
Point 1 - my state archives and genealogy library were closed for almost two months this year due to renovations. I did not know this. Luckily, I hadn't tried to visit them, but I had just found their blogs and learned that they were closed. Since the archives are still undergoing renovations, I check in every now and then to see how it's going. Good thing I checked this past Friday, as I was going to go the library section on Saturday and found out that the entire building was to be closed due to continuing renovation work.
Point 2 - I am heading for Georgia in late August and pulled up the local library that I always visit. Found out that a portion of the library - including the genealogy section - is to be unavailable for the next several weeks due to renovations. It looks like they will be finished before my trip, but it is something to keep an eye on in case the work overruns into my trip timetable and then I can make plans to visit another library.
Just about every public county library has a website. Use google to find them and hopefully you won't run into a closed library.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
on visiting cemeteries
Well, didn't expect to be that long between posting.
A few weeks ago, we took a vacation and ended up visiting three cemeteries to locate some grave sites. This wasn't a research trip - we just wanted to get out of town for a few days. We'd planned this trip for earlier in the year but decided to postpone it due to a pet illness.
Visiting cemeteries can be exciting, especially when it gives you new leads and answers some big unknowns. Deciding what cemetery to visit to find your answers can be confusing when you don't know if any of your people there and, if you do, are faced with 30 acres of plots to walk to find them.
Contacting cemetery offices for information can run the gamit from not being able to actually find an office to having to make an appointment to ask your questions. I've not had any really bad experiences with those in cemetery offices but I have heard of others who have traveled a number of miles only to find that no one can or will help them.
Plan ahead, even if you might never ever get to visit that cemetery. Some cemeteries are online and have posted their procedures (and pricing) for providing information. I read county message boards to see if anyone else has ever been to or dealt with a particular cemetery and follow their suggestions. Posting a request for someone to help you find a burial may generate some answers.
The three that I recently visited I dealt with in differing ways. One cemetery held an aunt, uncle, and cousin, whose burials I was not present at. In fact, I wasn't even told about them until after the fact. I found through the county message board that there wasn't an office as such and that calling the nearby church would be the best way to verify a burial. So I tracked down the church office phone number and called. The church receptionist was very nice and helpful, but she did not have the information and gave me the phone number of the person who had the burial records. I called that person, who turned out to be a very nice woman watching her grandchildren, but who went through her records to verify that the three were indeed buried there (I knew that two were but didn't know if they were all in the same plot) and she even offered to go there a few days ahead of my trip and place a marker at the site so that I could find them. Since we canceled the initial trip, I never did call her back to let her know we were coming, but the cemetery was not as large as it appeared on the maps and the plot was found within fifteen minutes.
The second cemetery was a very large and old one and still quite active. I had been there before so I knew that I had to have my info in line. The last time, I wrote to the cemetery office and gave them the two names that I was looking for along with their death dates and asked for a map location of their plot. They responded in a timely fashion and found the plot on my next trip. I also wrote to the cemetery office for this visit, giving the name of the person I was looking for, her death and burial date, and requested a map location of her site. I also enclosed a self-addressed stamped envelope for their response. Which, even after four months, I never received. So I knew their office hours and stopped by with my request, which was very quickly answered and I was on my way.
The third cemetery I went to was a last-minute decision. I have a very understanding spouse who asks when we are on the road if there are any places that I need to visit. While we were trying to decide what to do on our way home, I suggested that there was one more cemetery I would like to stop by. I already had the lady's death and burial date but since she wasn't in any of my direct lines, I never really gave a thought to looking for her. It was in another one of the older and historic cemeteries where we were vacationing, so I thought I should go ahead and look for her while I was in the city. We drove out there, I got the location and a listing of everyone in the plot and directions, and I was on my way.
It was a relatively painless trip as far as finding these burials go, but the point here is that I knew where they were buried and I had death and/or burial dates. I've never gone cold into a cemetery office - they are usually understaffed and are probably more concerned with burials currently going on. Some offices require a payment even if you already know that they are buried there - but they won't verify or provide a map or plot burials without one.
A few weeks ago, we took a vacation and ended up visiting three cemeteries to locate some grave sites. This wasn't a research trip - we just wanted to get out of town for a few days. We'd planned this trip for earlier in the year but decided to postpone it due to a pet illness.
Visiting cemeteries can be exciting, especially when it gives you new leads and answers some big unknowns. Deciding what cemetery to visit to find your answers can be confusing when you don't know if any of your people there and, if you do, are faced with 30 acres of plots to walk to find them.
Contacting cemetery offices for information can run the gamit from not being able to actually find an office to having to make an appointment to ask your questions. I've not had any really bad experiences with those in cemetery offices but I have heard of others who have traveled a number of miles only to find that no one can or will help them.
Plan ahead, even if you might never ever get to visit that cemetery. Some cemeteries are online and have posted their procedures (and pricing) for providing information. I read county message boards to see if anyone else has ever been to or dealt with a particular cemetery and follow their suggestions. Posting a request for someone to help you find a burial may generate some answers.
The three that I recently visited I dealt with in differing ways. One cemetery held an aunt, uncle, and cousin, whose burials I was not present at. In fact, I wasn't even told about them until after the fact. I found through the county message board that there wasn't an office as such and that calling the nearby church would be the best way to verify a burial. So I tracked down the church office phone number and called. The church receptionist was very nice and helpful, but she did not have the information and gave me the phone number of the person who had the burial records. I called that person, who turned out to be a very nice woman watching her grandchildren, but who went through her records to verify that the three were indeed buried there (I knew that two were but didn't know if they were all in the same plot) and she even offered to go there a few days ahead of my trip and place a marker at the site so that I could find them. Since we canceled the initial trip, I never did call her back to let her know we were coming, but the cemetery was not as large as it appeared on the maps and the plot was found within fifteen minutes.
The second cemetery was a very large and old one and still quite active. I had been there before so I knew that I had to have my info in line. The last time, I wrote to the cemetery office and gave them the two names that I was looking for along with their death dates and asked for a map location of their plot. They responded in a timely fashion and found the plot on my next trip. I also wrote to the cemetery office for this visit, giving the name of the person I was looking for, her death and burial date, and requested a map location of her site. I also enclosed a self-addressed stamped envelope for their response. Which, even after four months, I never received. So I knew their office hours and stopped by with my request, which was very quickly answered and I was on my way.
The third cemetery I went to was a last-minute decision. I have a very understanding spouse who asks when we are on the road if there are any places that I need to visit. While we were trying to decide what to do on our way home, I suggested that there was one more cemetery I would like to stop by. I already had the lady's death and burial date but since she wasn't in any of my direct lines, I never really gave a thought to looking for her. It was in another one of the older and historic cemeteries where we were vacationing, so I thought I should go ahead and look for her while I was in the city. We drove out there, I got the location and a listing of everyone in the plot and directions, and I was on my way.
It was a relatively painless trip as far as finding these burials go, but the point here is that I knew where they were buried and I had death and/or burial dates. I've never gone cold into a cemetery office - they are usually understaffed and are probably more concerned with burials currently going on. Some offices require a payment even if you already know that they are buried there - but they won't verify or provide a map or plot burials without one.
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