The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-And-True Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors by Marsha Hoffman Rising Read Free Book Online Page B

Ohio.
Newspapers
    Newspapers can be a wonderful substitute for vital records even though they are not always completely accurate. Although comprehensive obituaries did not become common until the late nineteenth century, short notices of deaths and marriages were usually included from the beginning of newspaper publication. Whether your ancestor or his family members appear will, of course, depend on their prominence, their proximity to the town where the newspaper was published, and the drama of their demise. In other words, a man dragged to his death by a horse team was more likely to make the paper than a woman who died in childbirth.
    From the
Vermont Gazette
:
    23 September 1791: Died in Addison by act of lunacy, Mr. Simon Smith, age 50 years. He left a widow and ten children. His body was found hanging by the neck with his face within ten inches of the ground. Inquest brought verdict of insanity.
    29 September 1800: We hear from Orwell that Mr. Jesse Marks, in sailing on Lake Champlain from Mount Independence to Ticonderoga, accidentally fell overboard and was taken up, almost instantly dead. He was in the 36th year of his age.
    When you read newspapers, do not limit yourself to the small section reserved for birth and marriage notices or obituaries. Birth and death announcements can appear in other sections as well, especially if the event was unusual in some way — if it occurred in a peculiar place or there were multiple births.
    Here are two death notices buried in news stories from
The Bolivar Weekly Courier
, Bolivar, Missouri.

    Figure 2-3 Miami College Bulletin, 1903.
    10 July 1856: “Last Monday morning Milton Davidson heard a disturbance among the chickens. He was about to fire his rifle, but thinking the report would disturb his wife, he decided to step outside the door, but in doing so, he fell, the gun discharged and the ball entered his wife's head penetrating the skull just above the right eye killing her instantly.”
    This news story can certainly be viewed with a jaundiced eye, but it does report the death of Mrs. Davidson. The story, however, was not over. From
The Springfield Mirror
, Springfield, Missouri:
    31 July 1858: “Milton M. Davidson of Polk County, was struck by lightning on the 20th inst. and immediately killed.”
    It's possible there is justice in the world. Now consider this birth notice from the
Spring River Fountain
(Lawrence County, Missouri):
    Triplets in Polk County born April 24 [1869] to Mr. and Mrs. Judge James Human of Humansville, two boys and a girl, averaged 6 lbs. He is age 69 and has had 3 wives, is paternal relative of some twenty-five children.
    Newspapers also contain letters from citizens who migrated and later wrote back to inform the community of deaths of former citizens.
    The Stockton Journal
, Stockton, Missouri, 3 May 1888: William P. Conway of Independence, Oregon wrote his father, Dennis Conway, announcing the death of William Tatom, which occurred in Oregon a few days since. He emigrated from Cedar County to Oregon in 1850, accompanied by Thomas Hartley, Mr. Edwards and others. His family followed three years later.
    The Springfield Express
, Springfield, Missouri, 6 May 1881: Died at Navarro Mills, Texas, April 25th, 1881, Richard H. Younger, formerly of this county. Deceased was brother-in-law of the late Dr. G.P. Shackelford and a nephew of Judge J.T. Morton.
    Col. Blodgett, master of several wagon trains west, published a list in 1852 of over a hundred and fifty graves he found along the Oregon Trail from Devil's Gate [Wyoming] to the Missouri River. I submitted this list to the
National Genealogical Society Quarterly
, where it was published in December 1988, pages 302-04.
Case Study
    I had terrible difficulty establishing the death date of Rebecca McConnell Strain, my second great-grandmother. She had applied for and received a military pension for her husband's service in the War of 1812. The last notice in the pension file was a complaint from her