Love the local papers…
One of the great joys of being a 21st century genealogist is sitting there, at 3 a.m., in your bunny slippers, and finding out little bits and pieces about your ancestors that you never would have known any other way.
For The Legal Genealogist, that joy includes finding newspapers digitized and available online for the early years of the 20th century … particularly those from Tillman County, Oklahoma.
That’s where a bunch of my folks were living in those years: my second great grandmother Martha Louise (Shew) Baird Livingston and many of her children and their families, including her daughter and son-in-law, my great grandparents Eula (Baird Livingston) Robertson and Jasper Carlton Robertson, and their daughter, my grandmother Opal (Robertson) Cottrell.
Just looking at what was published in the month of May in various years, and just focusing on my immediate direct line folks, those tidbits of their lives are simply fascinating.
On 28 May 1909, for example, a notice for publication from the Land Office at Lawton included the assertion:
“Claimant names as witnesses: Albion Jared, W.L. Kirkpatrick, C.C. McCormick, J.C. Robertson, all of Frederick, Okla.”1
So what do I know from this? Well, how about the fact that Jasper was considered to be “of Frederick” in 1909? (It’s important not to be misled by this: that was his post office address; his actual residence was outside of town.) And how about the fact that he was serving as a witness for the homestead claim of Edwin A. Belleville? Must have known Belleville, no? And the fact that he was probably a neighbor to and knew the other witnesses as well, right? Things to add to the research list for Jasper…
Or the fact that on 3 May 1912, the paper reported:
“Bugging the gardens is the order of the day in Hollister. The big black bugs come out after dark and are working havoc with the gardens, especially the beans. Some are taking lanterns and going out and catching and burning them. Mrs. J.C. Robertson and J.A. Pritchard, whose gardens join, report having caught about 1,000 in one evening.”2
Ewwwww.
I’m not entirely sure just how much I want to know about big black bugs, but… there’s still quite a bit to be gleaned from this tidbit, more to add to what I know. Such as the fact that gardens were well enough advanced in Oklahoma in early May to have to worry about bugs. And that Eula — just recently widowed then — lived next door to J.A. Pritchard.
And there are just so many of these tidbits. Things that tell me who my folks were involved with, and what they were all doing at the time:
• On 10 May 1912: “H.H. Lewis and wife, Mesdames W.E. Haight, Emmett Lewis, and Misses Opal Robertson and Ora Winningham, also Misses Lela Lewis and Lynda Oakley attended the singing convention at Loveland Sunday. They report a fine time and good singing.”3
• On 31 May 1912: “Opal Robertson spent one night last week with Lela Lewis.”4
• On 2 May 1913: “Miss Mary Vinsonhaler was the guest of Miss Opal Robertson Sunday.”5
• On 9 May 1913: “Opal Robertson is attending school at Farmingdale this week.”6
• On 7 May 1915: “L. Livingston and Jacob Fleming visited the former’s sister, Mrs. J.C. Robertson, Sunday.”7
• On 7 May 1915: “Miss Maude Vinsonhaler and Miss Opal Robertson, of Frederick, were guests of the Misses Kent from Friday until Sunday.”8
• On 21 May 1915: “Miss Opal Robertson visited her mother over Sunday.”9
You have to love the fact that those local newspapers reported all these comings and goings in such detail. And then, as genealogists, we have to look to the stories they tell.
Attending school in Farmingdale in 1913? What school? Are there records?
Visiting her mother in 1915? She was just 17. Where was she living if she had to visit with her mother?
And remember these were just the ones I chose from the month of May.
The stories of a family’s life from the tidbits in the local newspapers.
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “The tidbits of May,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 14 May 2022).
SOURCES
Note: All citations are to digital images at Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/ : accessed 14 May 2022); emphasis added to names.
- “Notice for Publication,” Frederick (Okla.) Enterprise, 28 May 1909, p. 2, col. 6. ↩
- “Hollister,” Frederick Weekly Enterprise, 3 May 1912, p. 6, col. 5. ↩
- “Hollister,” Frederick Weekly Enterprise, 10 May 1912, p. 6, col. 2-3. ↩
- “Hollister,” Frederick (Okla.) Leader, 31 May 1912, p. 7, col. 1. ↩
- “Dawson,” Frederick Weekly Enterprise, 2 May 1913, p. 7, col. 3. ↩
- “Farmingdale,” Frederick Leader, 9 May 1913, p. 8, col. 5. ↩
- “Farmingdale,” Frederick Leader, 7 May 1915, p. 9, col. 5. ↩
- “Mounts,” Frederick Leader, 7 May 1915, p. 10, col. 6. ↩
- “Farmingdale,” Tillman County (Okla.) Enterprise, 21 May 1915, p. 3, col. 5. ↩
I love these social notes! Two of my all-time favorites I found while researching:
Mr. Ellis Steinfirst slipped on the ice and broke his nose.
Mrs. Steinfirst had eye surgery and is doing fine.
Your entire life could be in the paper if your family was socially prominent in the city the paper was published. These are from Titusville, Pennsylvania.
My Carter great-grandparents lived & were buried in Frederick, OK! I’ve found some pretty funny newspaper articles about them too!
There are snippets to be had in the UK newspapers too. The fact that someone got a prize for the biggest pumpkin may not be of vital record consequence but it does tell you something about them. In Australia’s Trove there are innumerable instances of who visited whom and when, along with buckets of other trivia that can be mined, just as TLG suggests. How else would I know that my Tasmanian rels raced pigeons? Or that the man my grandfather’s sister married was in his cricket team?
I have found interesting tid-bits, too. In July, 1918, the Warren Times-Observer wrote: Mr. & Mrs. Amel Hague visited the home of Mrs Paul Smith on their honeymoon. They wed in Kansas City and are traveling to New York City after leaving Warren.
Well, they were married in McCook, Nebraska in 1916, 2 years before she was divorced from her 1st husband!
Interesting…
I found this newspaper notice interesting, since my mother knew the George Holcomb mentioned but did not know how he was related to her family until I started doing family history:
The Lowell [Massachusetts] Daily Sun
24 October 1893
“AFTER THIRTY YEARS
George Holcomb Locates His Father and Has a Talk With Him
Palmer, Mass., Oct 24, 1893 – Thirty years ago Charles Holcomb said goodby to his wife and son and enlisted in the Union Army. When the war was over he did not return to his family, but went to unknown parts. Mrs Holcomb naturally supposed her husband dead, and after a proper interval married Captain Dwight Johnson of this town. In a few years Captain Johnson died and within a few months Mrs Johnson died also.
The son, George Holcomb, has just accidentally found that his father is living. He was at Coleraine, and happened to see in the post office a letter addressed to Charles Holcomb. As that is his father’s name he made inquiries, went to a farm some distance from the town and found that the man really was his father and had a long talk with him.
The elder Holcomb is married again and has several children. He owns a good farm and draws a pension. George told his father of his mother’s death, and the old man said he would have liked to have seen Mrs Johnson and had a talk with her before she died. There seems to be no likelihood that father and son will live together. George is a night watchman at a depot in West Brookfield.”
There is more truth in the vital records of the town where Charles and his wife were living before the Civil War. Several more children were born to Mrs Hocum (all died very young) while her husband was away.
He remarried after the war, although his second wife was not able to collect his pension after his death because no divorce record was available.