Minnesota and beyond: seeking families and descendants of 46,000 adopted children since 1865

I love neighborhood newspapers. The Park Bugle serves the St. Anthony Park, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, and Como Park areas of St. Paul, Minnesota The September issue I picked up this week carried an article with joyous news of importance to many people. It concerns the families of children adopted through two organizations located here in Minnesota. 

The Children's Home Society is celebrating 125 years of service. It has joined with Lutheran Social Services in a celebration being billed jointly as “Family Reunion: Celebrating 275 Years of Adoption.” The event takes place on Sunday, September 21st.

One special part the article states is "Everyone is welcome, but organizers are issuing a special invitation to

Proven: A private railroad car for L. F. Slaker

A family story is proven! Many years ago, I was told a similar story by two older relatives. Last night I found the proof of the story. The story was that my Great Granduncle Louis F. Slaker was so important with the Omaha railroad (Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha  Railway) to have his own private railroad car. I have researched and documented much about the Slaker (Schleicher) family in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, California, Washington and other places. Louis served the railroad in many capacities, including several division supervisory roles. Louis' sister Emma Slaker Stuart is one of my paternal great grandmothers. Louis is usually found as L. F. Slaker.

Newspapers in many localities reports railroad activities and also local news related to railroad personnel. It's been a great way to follow other Slaker and Stuart family members through their movements in Wisconsin and Minnesota as they worked at various railroad jobs. L. F. Slaker appeared more than other family members due to his job level.

Earlier tonight I found that aforementioned proof. A local news item in one newspaper mentioned his private railroad car. I also found other mentions of this car, visiting family, job changes, vacations, and more in local news columns.

Worthington Advance [MN], 24 February 1905, page 5, column 2

The full article newspaper can be viewed at the Library of Congress' Chronicling America website.

Last post for Black History Month

By chance this morning I came across a wonderful Minnesota Black Newspaper Index. It was compiled in 2002 by Brendan Henehan. He wrote: "This is an informal index of newspapers that I have compiled over the past several years. It is not meant to be an exhaustive listing of topics. I have looked at each of the newspapers listed in the Newspaper Key of this index, quickly scanning them for topics of interest to me. You’ll notice particular passions of mine: baseball, media and the law. Yet I have tried to be general in my interests as well. Each of the papers listed in the key are available at the Minnesota Historical Society except for the New York Age, which is available at the University of Minnesota’s Wilson Library."

He indexed 15 newspaper titles and the index is on the Minnesota Historical Society's website. The index includes a key to the newspaper titles that are abbreviated in the index.

I found several items I want to check based on my own research and lecture interests:

Adams, J. Q.: Founder of St. Paul Afro-American League, AP 11-9-1889 p1 c2
Advertisement:  Wanted: 10 good colored families for N. Dakota TCG 1-17-1920 p1 c3
WPA: Transient camp in Mendota has 108 Black men MSP 3-6-1936 p1 c6
WP:A Twin Cities survey of Blacks TCH 4-4-1936 p1 c5
Bundrant, J. W:. Forms Black World War I unit TCS 4-14-1917 p2 c2
Carey, Talmadge: To wed Theresa Ray 8-8 at St. Peter Claver MSP 8-10-1945 p7 c3
Carey, Talmadge: Photo of wedding to Theresa Ray MSP 8-24-1945 p3 c3
Carter, Charles: Former slave dies, came to Mpls in 1883 TCL 8-24-1940 p2 c5
Goins, Homer Former St. Paul officer dies at 42 TCH 8-27-1932 p4 c1
Goins, Homer Obituary of former St. Paul police officer TCH 9-3-1932 p1 c2

And that's just the beginning of the articles that interest me!

Is that obituary totally factual?

How many obituaries have you read in recent years that had some sort of error? Sometimes you see the newspaper print a correction but that is rare and usually separate from obituaries or death/funeral notices. Any time such an announcement is prepared, several chances for errors loom. The same applies to all such notices in newspapers in any time period. I love the names, places, relationships, and other details but remember that these need to be verified.

• Is the person compiling the notice in shock at the loss of a relative or friend? 
• Did a family member give the information orally and someone at the newspaper or funeral home wrote up the notice?
• Was the notice written by someone at the newspaper who did not consult with the family?
• Maybe Aunt Sally only guessed at the places of residence of her sister's children and grandchildren. 
• Mispelling of names could be a product of almost anyone.
• Typos are not purposely done but do happen. It might be the original typist or that newspaper typesetter.
• Did the person compiling the notice double check the person's birth date or year?
• In the rush to get the notice published, was one of the children omitted?
• Perhaps the deceased's brother Samuel was incorrectly listed as an Uncle. 
• A follow up story that lists who attended the funeral and from where may have errors in the names and places of residence.

Now if I could only find one of those full page length obituaries I see in older newspapers for a member of my own family. How can we get descendants of those families interested in family history research? They have gold mines of clues waiting for them. 

Hometown Newspapers

Do you subscribe to the current newspaper in the city or towns where your ancestral families lived? This is especially helpful in smaller cities and towns. Many are online but not all of those are the complete newspaper for the day or week. The current newspaper may have a column reprinting news tidbits from 50, 75, or 100 years ago. In smaller cities and towns you may find articles on the local historical society, genealogical society, and stories on older homes and buildings. From these you may learn who are the knowledgeable persons in that area as far as history. You might learn who is the head of the Comfort Rest Cemetery committee.

Don’t forget to borrow older newspapers on microfilm via Interlibary Loan and and spend some time reading these to get a feeling of the time when your family was in that locality. Check at your area public library about borrowing newspaper films from other places. Many older newspapers on now online in growing numbers but I still think it is easier to read through an entire newspaper on microfilm. Make copies (or save to your computer) the pertinent articles and other news items.

Dublin Evening Mail rare newspapers donated

Even though it's still August 2d where I live, the August 3d edition of Irishtimes.com is reporting about some rare newspapers being donated to the Dublin City Library!

"RARE EDITIONS of the former Dublin Evening Mail dating back over 170 years are to be presented to the Dublin City Library tomorrow by an east Galway archivist and town councillor. The 157 issues of the newspaper date from February 5th, 1838, to December 31st, 1855, and have been part of the personal collection of Cllr Norman Morgan (Ind), a printer and member of Loughrea Town Council. First published in 1823, the Dublin Evening Mail was the longest running evening newspaper in Ireland when it last appeared in 1962.
Mr Burke purchased the issues some years ago at auction."

Let's hope they are indexed and/or digitized at some point. 

Paying to view current obituaries?

Viewing current obituaries will soon be costing us more. Think about the fortune it costs for a family to have an obituary published in the newspaper. Now if someone else wants to check the newspaper for funeral details it might cost a few extra bucks. An article by David Brauer in yesterday's Minnesota Post gives some details about new online newspaper metering. He later posted about a way to fool the system. I don't want to give easy access to that link -- you will have to find it yourself. I love to read the current obits for free and understand today's economics, but it seems targeted at senior citizens to make a buck. Paying for access just to obits seems a bizarre way to begin. Why not sports articles or scores? Why not advertising?


The first user of the paid obit checks is LancasterOnline which says that "If you are a frequent visitor, staying in touch with our community, you may read seven obituaries for free each month."

Here's a link to another interesting column about the changing service.This includes lots of statistics on which the newspaper is basing its decision.

Just a couple days ago I told a group of fellow genealogists that it was interesting to read both the St. Paul and Minneapolis newspapers online from Friday evening until Monday morning and see little local news. It's like living, crime, accidents, and other events stop for that time period. But we know it really doesn't stop. The newspapers are only published once a day and on the weekends the staffing has been cut to the barest minimum. No longer are we being kept informed of our local area -- well, unless a TV news story or an Associated Press article can be reported in the newspaper. Truly, the local flavor is going, going, going . . .

I guess I like the local funeral homes that also publish obituaries on their websites -- and so far do so at no charge. After all, the families or the funeral home compile the obituary and send it electronically. In today's world the work for the newspaper has been cut back. 

Many newspapers will not post news about upcoming events (even with text and photos provided for free) but will send a reporter to the event and publish the article after the event. How is that helpful? So, if I ran a newspaper -- oh wait, I wear enough hats already.

So, my wish is that newspapers don't become like the airlines. Keep good customer service. Charge if the bottom line requires. But give us lots of the news we are looking for. Tell us about upcoming events so that we may attend them. If you are going to charge to publish obits and then charge someone extra to look at them, charge equally for other info. Hmmm -- do sports teams or city councils get charged to post news about their activities or events? But the grieving family does and then might have to pay to access what it paid to have published. Off my soapbox.

North Carolina newspapers online

The state archives in North Carolina has has completed the posting of 23,483 digital images of newspapers online at its website. They are keyword searchable! These cover a time frame from 1751 into the 1890s.

The North Carolina Newspaper Digitization Project website states: "In 2009, the North Carolina State Archives completed a project to digitize newspapers from its collection that were, up until that time, only available on microfilm. These materials include papers dating from 1751-1890s from cities like Edenton (1787-1801), Fayetteville (1798-1795), Hillsboro (1786), New Bern (1751-1804), Salisbury (1799-1898), and Wilmington (1765-1816) - a total of 23,483 digital images that are keyword searchable."

The project page includes a list of the newspapers and years that have been made available online. The searches can be made by just a keyword, or limit it by year and/or newspaper title. An advanced search capability allows for additional parameters.

"British Newspapers, 1800-1900 " available for home access

I love being able to sit in my home in the U.S. and read newspapers from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. I have been doing this for the last couple of hours and as usually happens when I read old newspapers, I start reading everything and forget the exact thing I was searching. But I usually find things that I wish had my ancestors listed in them. The item at the right is from the Aberdeen Journal [Scotland].

A relatively new website makes these newspapers such as this one available for research right in your own home. Quoting directly from the company making this possible: “Before “British Newspapers, 1800-1900” was created, a genealogist would have to visit various libraries and scroll through hundreds of screens of newspapers on microfilm to look for this information. Now, researchers can keyword search millions of pages of text with one key stroke from the comfort of their homes, drastically reducing the time and energy needed to research family genealogy. With this new resource the task of researching family genealogy, once arduous and seemingly impossible, is now relatively easy and very exciting."

"Gale, part of Cengage Learning, along with The British Library and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), have made nineteenth-century British newspapers available on the internet. The database, known as “British Newspapers, 1800-1900" and available at http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/, gives users access to over two million newspaper pages from 49 different national and regional newspapers from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Chosen by leading experts and academics, the newspapers represent a cross-section of nineteenth-century society and contain illustrated materials on a variety of topics, including business, sports, politics and entertainment.”

“To make this collection available to users, Gale turned The British Library's collection of nineteenth-century newspapers into a high-resolution digital format with searchable images. The database presents online access to a key set of primary sources for the study of nineteenth-century history. For the 49 newspapers selected, every front page, editorial, birth and death notice, advertisement and classified ad that appeared within their pages is easily accessible from what is a virtual chronicle of history for this period. Users of the database can search every word on every page.”

Among the features I used on the website:

• Short history of the individual newspaper
• Short history of British newspapers in general which has sources cited!
• Searched all newspapers for an uncommon surname
• Searched a specific newspaper for a surname within a range of years
• Searched for names in a specific newspaper
• Searched for a surname and a city in the U.S.
• Searched for a surname and a city in Scotland
• Checked my search history
• Printed an article (also could have downloaded, saved, or emailed it)
• Browsed the alphabetical list of publications
• Checked the map showing what cities’ newspapers are included
  

While I didn't find anything on direct ancestors I found some articles that relate to possible collateral lines. I also gained a feeling of the social history of the years I searched. The articles loaded quickly.

Among the types of articles I saw:

• Lists of births, deaths and marriages from these countries
• Some U.S. b, d, and m in these newspapers
• Accident notices
• Bankruptcies
• People sentenced to jail and to gaol
• Business partnerships dissolved
• Politics
• Religion
  

Over two million pages are included and are all fully text searchable with keywords in context visible in the results list. Access cost:

• A 24-hour pass for £6.99 that provides you access to 100 articles over that period. [ca. $11.52 US]
• A 7-day pass for £9.99 that provides you access to 200 articles over that period. [ca. $16.46 US]

A larger library, especially a university library, near you might have this database. Before visiting the library check to see who may log on to do searches.

Check out the website at http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/

Google expands its "News Archive Search"

Have you used Google's newspaper archive search? It is one of my favorite search capabilities for obituaries and other newspaper items. Many of the links that pop up are to other websites that require a fee. Many of these do have subscriptions for home users. Your public library may have subscriptions to these sites.

Google has also been digitizing newspapers and has recently quadrupled number of articles included in "News Archive Search."

Try some searches here.

See the full notice on Google's own blog.

New Orleans Public Library's Louisiana Biography and Obituary Index now fully online

This press release appeared online this morning. Don’t forget that many immigrants to this country arrived at the port of New Orleans. Many then ventured up the Mississippi River to their new homes. U.S. residents may have spent some time in New Orleans as they journeyed on the water from the East Coast to the West Coast and vice versa. This is one index I have dreamed of using because much of it was a WPA (Work Projects Administration) indexing project in the late 1930 as part of FDR’s New Deal program. Since that time, librarians have made extensive additions to the index. The library’s website includes information on ordering copies of articles the index references.

“The New Orleans Public Library's Louisiana Division is pleased to announce that its "Louisiana Biography and Obituary Index" is now available online.

The original Index, which references obituaries appearing in New Orleans newspapers, 1805-1972, and selected biographical references in a variety of published sources, is a massive card file of some 650,000 cards, most of which include multiple references. The online version, a searchable database of the card index, is the result of a nearly 10-year-long collaboration between NOPL and The Historic New Orleans Collection, which funded the project and produced the database and the web interface. While names from about the first third of the alphabet have been searchable online for a number of years, the database is now complete. Names can be searched from Aachler, Fred E. to Zyzik, Pauline Wyplor. We are finally done.

To search the index (and find out more about the project), please link to http://neworleanspubliclibrary.org/obits/obits.htm. (If you have the original version of the index linked or bookmarked, please note that the link has changed, since the completed index has moved to a new server.)

Irene Wainwright
Archivist, Louisiana Division/City Archives
New Orleans Public Library
219 Loyola Ave.
New Orleans, LA 70112

Archives of the Rocky Mountain News

In February, the almost 150 year old Rocky Mountain News closed its doors. It is just one of the many recent newspaper casualties. What happens to the records, clippings, reference files, photos, and other material that such newspapers had? In the case of the RMN, several online sources report that agreements are in the works for transfer of the materials.

The Associated Press reports that the Denver Public Library will house the newspaper's "digital and paper clipping files, microfilm reels, digital and photographic files, and marketing materials and correspondence." I am presuming that the collection might be part of the excellent Western History and Genealogy department.

The Colorado Historical Society, based in Denver, would take "other artifacts like signs, photographs, special editions, and other historical documents."

Many large newspapers have/had in-house libraries and/or archives where reporters did a lot of the research for articles. Not all get saved, so it is great to see one newspaper archives being saved.