#52Ancestors - In the Newspapers - tips for newspaper research

#52Ancestors – In the Newspapers

                Newspaper research is my favorite thing to do.  I love nothing more than to sit and read old issues of newspapers.  They published everything back then and can give you such a glorious glimpse of the lives of our ancestors, from Sunday dinners to special anniversaries.  Editors back in the day did not hold their feelings back and printed things that would garner them slander lawsuits in the present day. 

            I thought for this blog post I would share some of my tips for successful newspaper research.  I started searching through newspapers back when the only way to do it was a microfilm reader.  On bad days, I’d head to the library and just read old issues, not really looking for anything in particular.  It was fun to do and could take my mind off of about anything.  The editors of two local papers had a strong dislike for each other and put weekly bashes toward each other in their papers.  It was hilarious to read.  Now I have a subscription to Newspapers.com and adore it.  I’ve found so much more than I had before. 

Clyde Republican, Th 30 Dec 1915

Clyde Farmer's Voice,
Th. 30 Dec 1915

         One tip that I find very important is to read every paper in town.  Back in the old days, it was not uncommon to find two, three or more papers in each town.  Depending on the family’s relationship with the editor, there could be different viewpoints on events.  Take for example the obituaries for Genevieve Tremblay.  There were two newspapers in Clyde, Kansas and there were several in the county seat town of Concordia.    One Clyde newspaper reported that she had accidentally swallowed carbolic acid and died.  The other Clyde paper and Concordia both said that

she committed suicide.

                I always look for articles about special anniversaries – 25, 40, 50, etc.  If there was a big celebration for a landmark anniversary, there is information about the celebration, the couple, their wedding and their family.  Sometimes you can get luck and find a photo of the couple or their wedding photo.  One anniversary article I found was a full two page spread with photos of the couple, their family, their farm and the special message sent to them on the occasion of the anniversary by the Pope!  It is always worthwhile to look for them.

                We all look for obituaries, but it is important to read the papers for a month or two in advance of the death.  Many times by reading that far back, you can find mentions of the person being sick or in an accident.  You can find clippings about family members coming in for the last visit.  In the issue with the obituary and the week after, look for bits about those who came in from out of town to the funeral.  It can help you find elusive relatives that you might previously not known where they lived. 

                Weddings are another fun item to look up.  Some were not in the paper, some only had a little snippet.  Others were nice little articles about the wedding.  And occasionally you can find the granddaddy of all wedding articles that described every detail of the wedding, their apparel and flowers, the music, the food, all of the guests and a complete list of every gift.  I found one of these for a distant cousin and was thrilled to see that my great-great grandparents had gifted the newlyweds a Prize Barred Rock Rooster.  (How do you wrap that?!?)

                Early papers didn’t carry a lot of birth announcements, but it is always worth a look.  Some of the early ones that made the papers are cute.  I love using newspaper birth announcements on heritage scrapbook pages. 

                Don’t overlook the want ads!  I found a small ad my hubby’s grandfather placed, wanting to sell a Harley Davidson motorcycle when he was a young man.  I asked my father-in-law about it and made him laugh and he told me a delightful story about Grandpa Bud’s horrible Harley experience that caused him to sell the bike.  Another little ad was placed by my father-in-law’s grandma, wanting to sell strawberry plants.  She was an avid gardener and was thinning her strawberry patch.

                 If you are using microfilm to do your research, always remember to write the newspaper name and the day and date of the issue.  You will thank yourself later for the added minute or two it takes.  

                Newspapers are an amazing look back at the lives our ancestors lived, the friends they had and the activities they took part in.  I strongly urge you to spend some time with the papers in the communities your ancestors lived in.  You never know what treasures you’ll find!

#52Ancestors - Twelve

Me with my Great-Grandmother, Ada (Whetstine) Thomas

#52Ancestors – Week 12 – Twelve

                I turned 12 in late 1977.  The summer before my 12^th birthday was one that I will never forget.  Up until then life had been blissful.  I grew up in a mobile home in my great-grandmother’s yard.  Grandma Ada had raised my dad and his older sister Claudine “Deenie”.  Deenie was mentally disabled and even at her advanced age, Grandma still cared for her.  We lived in the yard to help them and watch over them.  It had been great having a great grandmother so close.  She was responsible for my love of family history.  She told me stories about growing up and her adventures with her brothers and sisters.  She showed me her parent’s family Bible and little did I know at that time, she had bequeathed it to me when I was six! 

My Aunt Claudine and my Dad. Grandma
didn't allow photos of her as she got older.

                 Grandma’s health had been declining for about a year prior.  She had developed diabetes and refused to acknowledge it.  She cut a toe badly and wound up with an infection.  The surgeries started then.  They amputated the first joint of her toe, then her whole toe, then her foot and finally her leg above the knee.  During one of her surgeries, Deenie got ill.  Her teeth were badly infected.  She got pneumonia and coupled with the infection she just couldn’t fight it.  She died on June 13^th, 1977 at the age of 43. 

                In August of 77, we lost the King.  My mom had been a huge Elvis fan and the day Elvis died was one I’ll never forget.  My mom cried over it as we listened to radio stations playing his music in tribute.  It was the first time a celebrity death impacted me.  It was one of those moments I’ll never forget.

After Grandma’s final amputation, she came home for one day and night.  I stayed at her house with her to help if I could and call my folks to come up if she needed to go to the bathroom.  She asked to go “home” (the nursing home she had stayed at while recovering).  The next morning, she went back to the nursing home, never to return to house she’d called home for over 50 years.    

My grandfather, Harley Thomas.

On the 7^th of September that year, my grandfather lost his battle with cancer.  He was my dad’s dad, Grandma Ada’s older son.  We didn’t see him a lot.  My dad had grown up with his grandparents, so he was closer to them than his parents.  The reasons why will probably be forever unknown.  My dad heard one story from his grandmother and the siblings raised by their parents heard an entirely different one.   Even though they weren’t close, it was the second death in my dad’s immediate family in just four months. 

Grandma Ada’s health continued to deteriorate and she passed away on the 8^th of October 1977.  She was 86 years old.  The last month her health had been so bad we hadn’t even told her that her son had passed.  She had been such an important part of my childhood.  I owed her so much, but I didn’t realize it then.  All I knew then was that I was entering my twelfth year after an incredibly hard summer and fall.  Really it was the end of my childhood.   Before that, I hadn’t had any losses that impacted me that much.  I was too young at the time.  These deaths rocked my world, and taught me the tough lessons about the deaths of loved ones.  My dad had suffered three deaths of people close to him and managed to get through and I entered my twelfth year with new knowledge and a new level maturity. 

 

#52Ancestors - Large Family

                I have spent a long time today, trying to figure out just which large family I was going to write about.  I’ve already written about two of the largest in our families.  But as I was going through my RootsMagic file, one thing kept coming up over and over.  French Canadians.

The John Baptiste & Mary (Talbot) Provost family, circa 1891.

                 My husband’s mother is descended from several French Canadian families.  The families started in Quebec and then all but two of the families went to Kankakee County, Illinois in the mid 1800’s.  (The two that didn’t go to Kankakee County migrated down through New York State).  French Canadians are Catholic (for the most part) and have large families.  Kankakee County filled up quick and soon there was no available land for the young men growing up and needing land to establish their own families.  Starting around 1870 there was another mass migration.  This time they moved from Kankakee County, Illinois to Cloud County, Kansas.  Most of these families were large with eight to fifteen children.  Those children were soon marrying and have large families of their own.  From Cloud County, some of the next generation went to Rooks County, Kansas.  Others moved to Minnesota and South Dakota.  The days of the mass migrations were over.  They moved where they found land, or work, or had other family.   

I didn’t grow up in Cloud County.  I moved here right after high school to attend college and loved it here so much I never went back to my hometown.  I quickly found that everyone was related here.  After I started digging in to my husband’s family tree, the French Canadians grabbed me and I soon learned just why everyone here was related!  I started with just Scott’s ancestors.  As I added in spouses for the children, I began hooking in other families.  I had access to baptism, marriage and death records, so I spent time building families.  I started a separate file in RootsMagic just French Canadians.  On bad days, I would spend quiet time building another family.  I’ve done research for other descendants and never once I have I failed to connect another family into the database somehow.  It seems Cloud County Kansas is one large family!

#52Ancestors - Bachelor Uncle Bud Dirst

#52Ancestors – Week 10 – Bachelor Uncle

Loyd Vernon "Bud" Dirst and Lucile Bestwick

                I am proud to share the story of my bachelor uncle.  Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to meet him for he passed away thirteen years before I was born.  But my mother and grandmother talked about him often so he lived on in their stories. 

                Loyd Vernon Dirst was the younger son of Ordway and Lela (Sunderland) Dirst.  He was born on the 20^th of February 1916 in Nemaha County, Kansas.  Lela had been fourteen years old when she married Ordway in 1910.   The marriage fell apart nine years later.  Lela was on her own with two little boys, Corles and Loyd.  She soon remarried to a widower named Arthur Bestwick.  On September 10^th of 1920 their only child was born, a beautiful, dimpled baby girl they named Kathryn Lucile.  Lucile would be my Nanny (grandmother) one day.

Bud and Lucile as teens

                Loyd Dirst was known to everyone as “Bud”.  No one has told me where that nickname came from.  Bud doted on his little sister and Lucile and Bud were very close.  Bud grew up to be the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. 

                Bud worked as a grocery boy at the local supermarket while attending high school.  He was well known around Hiawatha for being hard working, friendly and quite good looking.  But Bud wanted more. As quickly as he could he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.  He moved rapidly up through the ranks. 

                When he came home on leave, he was a doting uncle to his three nieces – Corles’ daughters Audrey and Loretta and Lucile’s daughter Judi (my mom).  They remember him affectionately as always having time to play with them. 

Bud on leave with Judi and Loretta

                Bud served in many different stations – San Diego, South Carolina, San Francisco, Guam, Pearl Harbor, Japan and finally Korea. Chief Warrant Officer Dirst was the officer in charge of a Military Police Company near Pusong-ni, Korea in November of 1950. 

                On the 29^th and 30^th of November the company was traveling in a road convoy between Koto-ri to Hagaru-ri when they were attacked by a large enemy force.  They were under intense automatic-weapon fire, small arms and grenade fire and seriously outnumbered.  In a flash, CWO Dirst had his unit positioned in the ditch beside the road.  He spent hours moving up and down the line, encouraging his men and passing ammunition.  He observed the enemy movements and kept them at a distance with hand grenades.  He was responsible for several enemy casualties.  After twelve hours of intense battle, CWO Dirst fell with a serious head injury.  One of his men drug him to safety and he was sent to a MASH unit as soon as they were safely able to. 

                Bud survived his injury and was honorably discharged.  He returned home to Hiawatha and lived with his mother.  The doctors had been unable to remove all of the shrapnel and he suffered greatly.  As the shrapnel shifted in position it would cause paralysis. In July of 1952 he was taken to Wadsworth Military Hospital on the base at Fort Leavenworth to undergo further surgery to remove the shrapnel.    He passed away on the 22^nd of July at the age of 36.  He was buried with full military honors at Mount Hope Cemetery in Hiawatha.  He received the Navy Cross posthumously. 

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                My mother and grandmother talked of Uncle Bud quite a lot.  I have passed those stories on to my two sons, hoping that he would always be remembered for the kind, courageous man he was.  He never married and never had children of his own to carry on his legacy, so it is up to my family and my cousins.  We decorate his grave every Memorial Day as we pause to remember. 

Dirst Hall on the USMC Base at Quantico.  Photo Courtesy USMC

                Last year I was shocked when I received a call from a USMC Major at Quantico.  He told me that they were building a new residence hall on the base and if the family would give permission, they wanted to name it after my Uncle Bud.  I was so grateful I cried.  Now Uncle Bud will never be forgotten.  On September 24^th, 2018 Dirst Hall on the Marine Corps Base at Quantico was dedicated.  We sent photos so his image and story are in the building so the young officers that live there will learn of his bravery.  Now my hero, my bachelor uncle will live on forever.