Newspapers are a wonderful resource for searching for genealogy information. Not only can you find birth, marriage and death announcements but there are numerous other pieces of information that can be found.
Many small towns in the 19th Century, would share tidbits of family visits or items that were grown on the farm. I’ve also found notices of real estate transactions.
Then if you have a notorious relative or a tragedy in the family there will be articles on these events. Depending on the circumstances and if the case may have gone to trial it is possible to find numerous articles.
In a N.C. newspaper, I found a record of my 2x great-grandfather searching for a missing friend. From this article I was provided with information I had no way of securing otherwise. This ancestor is listed as “was afflicted with asthma”. The article provided more information on other family members, stating his brother “whose weight was about 250 pounds.” All of this is information that is usually not passed down in family lore. The interesting things about the article is that it closes listing these men as “invalids” due to the previously mentioned conditions.
So don’t forget to search newspapers for more information on your family.
What interesting tidbit have you discovered in the newspaper?