The Slovak Yankee

Local Historical Societies

I can't rave enough about local historical societies and their willingness to help.  I found the Dauphin County Historical Society, via a google search.  I emailed the librarian if they conducted obituary research for the local newspapers, none of which are in national searchable databases up to now.  They did.  I wrote a check on June 22 for $28.00 and on July 2nd I received the two beautiful obituaries that were just previously posted.  As far as turnaround time and cost are concerned--omg--what a bargain.

This goes along with the Westbrook (Me.) Historical Society, and the Swarthmore Quaker Collection, all of which have provided low cost, original research to me remotely (that is I didn't go there).  This type of research is quasi-Internet research.  I use the Internet to track down societies' web sites and addresses and I email them.  After that, we take to snail mail, but these are original records we are talking about, and records that can be found nowhere else.

A further point on the obituaries.  I already had the death certificates of Mr. and Mrs. Morrissey so I provided the librarian with accurate death dates.  I would never ask for an obituary that was "sometime after the 1910 census," or even a date range longer than one to two months.  Simply not fair.

Transcription Monday (Amanuensis): Obituaries of William J. and Bridget Morrissey

The Harrisburg Telegraph of 3 March 1910:

Under the headline: Steelton: Funeral of Mrs. Morrisey.  The funeral of Mrs. Bridget Mary Morrisey, 67 years old, who died of pneumonia at her home on South Front Street, Wednesday evening will be held at 9 o'clock Monday morning in  St. James Catholic church.  Services will be conducted by Rev. P. F. Sullivan and interment will be made in Mt. Calvary cemetery, Harrisburg.

Mrs. Morrisey is survived by her husband, William Morrisey, one son, William J., six daughters, Mrs. John McCloskey of Robesonia; Mrs. Edward (sic) Berrigan of Hennessey, Oklahoma; Mrs. Andrew Nichols of Everette, Washington; Miss Mary Morrisey, Miss Margaret Morrisey, and Mrs. Michael Noonan of the borough; eight grandchildren, one brother James Cashin of Titusville, Pa.

The Harrisburg Telegraph of 22 August 1916:

Under the headline: Steelton: Heat Causes Two Steelton Deaths.  William Morrisey, Civil War Veteran and Mrs. Emma S. Beshore Die From Illness Aggravated by Weather.  Although there has so far been no deaths in the borough this summer directly attributed to the heat, two old residents died yesterday from causes which were thought to have been greatly aggravated by the recent hot weather.  The two persons who died were William Morrisey, aged 85 years, and Mrs. Emma Styles Beshore, who was 61 years of age.

William Morrisey, a veteran of the Civil war, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. M.J. Noonan, 13 South Second Street, yesterday morning at 5.30 o'clock.  He had been in ill health for some time and was visibly affected by the heat during the past few days.  He had been a resident of the borough since the close of the war.  Funeral services will be held in  St. James Catholic church Thursday morning at 9 o'clock Rev. J.C. Thompson officiating.  

article continues with Mrs. Beshore.

Mrs. Edmund (Johanna) Berrigan was Michael's great-grandmother.

Newspaper Database Coverage

In the most recent issue of the Genealogical Record of Stafford County, N.H. [May/June 2010], someone found two issues of The Strafford Inquirer from April 22 and June 10, 1828.  So the journal reprinted all the marriage and death announcements contained in the two issues.  Coincidentally, I was discussing with a genealogical colleague about the coverage of newspaper databases now.  Have they reached critical mass for information?  How many newspapers were still out there in depositories not yet digitized?  Specifically, is it worth it to travel to Worcester and see the collections at the American Antiquarian Society? So, this seemed like a good example to explore.  How many of these marriage and deaths were already available?

The April 22nd issue had 6 marriages and 10 death announcements.  The June 10th issue had 16 marriages and 11 death announcements.  The first place I checked was William E. Wentworth's Vital Records 1790-1829 from Dover, New Hampshire's First Newspaper (Camden, Me.: Picton Press, 1995).  Since the newspaper in question was also published in Dover, I expected quite a bit of overlap.  However, the New Hampshire Republican (the name of the newspaper at that time), didn't have good coverage during April to June 1828.  Only four of the events appeared in this work.

I then turned to genealogybank.com.  By searching just New Hampshire newspapers, I found 9 of the 16 events of April 22nd and 23 of the 27 events of June 10th.  When I broadened the search to all newspapers, I found 11 of 16 for April 22nd and 26 of 27 events for June 10th.  Overall that's 37 out of 43 or 86%.  That's pretty good coverage.  Of course, if your genealogy depended on the missing 6 records, then, it's a different story.  Only two missed events happened locally at Barnstead and Atkinson, N.H.  The others were all from other  places such as Boston, St. Thomas, and New York (2 events). 

So, my conclusion is that for early New England** there is a decent chance that marriages and deaths have already been picked up, but there is always a chance that a certain paper has the only mention of the event.  So in true genealogical fashion, your search is never over.  

**I use these databases for the midwest for Michael's ancestry and thus far, I've found very, very little.  I'm really hoping at some point the papers of Leavenworth Co., Kansas expand.  They seem to be from the 1850s to 1870 and then from the 1890s on.  Everything I need is between those dates!

Early Newspaper Databases

I love newspaper databases for genealogy.  The first, and in my opinion still the best, is "Early American Newspapers" part of genealogybank.com.  I started using this at Harvard as a librarian when there was just Series 1 and now there are six series and I subscribe as an individual.  I could get some of this database free as (1) a member of NEHGS or (2) via the Boston Public Library.  However, I want the full magilla on this one.

The other newspaper databases that are out there include: (a) 19th Century Newspapers, which I get as a member of NEHGS.  It's OK.  There are a few tricks for searching, but it's not bad.  However, their coverage is not as good as genealogybank.com for New England (my main research focus); (b) Newspaperarchive, which I recently let lapse.  This is more for schools and universities than genealogists; and (c) Footnote.com.  This is mostly recent stuff and not my thing.

I should say that I'm only talking about pre-1900 newspapers for the most part.  Many people doing all-family genealogies will benefit from the databases of current newspapers which carry obituaries.  Not my concern.  I did that the old-fashioned way years ago--on a microfilm viewer at each local library.

My biggest gripe with these databases are their bogus sales gimmicks.  Dates are not falsely advertised as such, but they are tricky.  Some databases will boast newspapers from 1790 to 2010.  Footnote does this.  Then you go and try to search for this.  On Footnote, the newspaper browse is by state and newspaper, and you can browse by time within those.  I looked at each New England State and guess-what.  Nothing before 1980.  So where that 1790 number comes from is anyone's guess.  So, there's one newspaper run that goes back that far.  Ugh.

Another one is to say that a title run is 1870-1920 (like Newspaper Archive does) for the Lowell Sun, without telling you about the significant gaps in coverage (no newspapers in 1906 at all!).  Ugh.

But it's worth it when you find this type of record.

Lt. Stephen Berry 1724-1820

Another early newspaper death notice.  His age and war service are key here.  Stephen is also the only officer in the Am. Revolution from whom I descend.  Michael, of course, is descended from General George Doherty.  Never do your spouse's genealogy!

Isaac Stanton 1732-1829

I've always been a big proponent of using newspaper resources in genealogy.  This is the oldest of my ancestors to get a newspaper death notice, from the April 4, 1829 Farmer's Cabinet in N.H.  His extreme age and his service in the French & Indian War no doubt helped and this same notice was copied to dozens of papers.

Isabella Fiddler Kinmond 1882-1901

There was a time when genealogists looked the other way when they found information that may seem controversial.  No horse thieves thank you!  Today, we find what we find and put it into the perspective it deserves.  Isabella Fiddler Kinmond was the older sister of my great-grandmother.  This article is from the Portland [Maine] Daily Advertiser.   I can't imagine what my great-great-grandfather went through emotionally finding her body.  The note found pinned to her body read "Dear Billie--I have gone forever.  You have heard about it by this time most likely.  No one will ever know why I did it.  Goodbye Forever.  Belle.  This is all I leave as a reason for my sin."  The story doesn't identify the Billie in question.  Evidently it was a love affair gone badly.