It breaks my heart to know people suffer for years wanting to know a bit of information when the answer could be as close as a visit to the local newspaper office. My brother in law, Dennis (1942-1993), I am told, spent his whole life wondering who his 'real' father was. His mother had remarried and her 2nd husband had adopted him. His mother refused to discuss the issue. On a recent visit to Julesburg, Colorado, the answer was found in the newspaper article publicizing his birth:
"Mr. and Mrs. Tracy Butler are the parents of a son born Friday.....". The answer had been there all along.
Today I wanted to spend some time reseaching other mysteries in old newspapers and was trying to find a source for old issues of the Des Moines Register or the Des Moines Tribune when I came across this story in a Lewiston, Maine newspaper about a Des Moines Register article from 1932:
The article title is "Newswoman gets surprise in search for past" and details the attempts by Dix Hollobaugh as she researched proof of her birth in order to obtain a passport. The story details how a woman dropped her baby off at the YWCA in Des Moines, Iowa. Again, answers found in the local paper!
Now, if I could just find those old newspapers from Des Moines online!
Today I wanted to spend some time reseaching other mysteries in old newspapers and was trying to find a source for old issues of the Des Moines Register or the Des Moines Tribune when I came across this story in a Lewiston, Maine newspaper about a Des Moines Register article from 1932:
Now, if I could just find those old newspapers from Des Moines online!
I love old newspapers, especially those I can find online - GenealogyBank, Chronicling America, Ancestry.com, etc.
ReplyDeleteA suggestion is to just enter what you're looking for in a search engine and see what you come up with. By doing this, I found that the Ocean City, New Jersey, Public Library has digitized some local newspapers from the 1920's and 1930's. I used a couple of images for a blog post at A Jewish Genealogy Journey.
Good luck!