A New Year and New Goal

Here we are half way through January and I was curious what your New Year's Resolution goal is regarding Family History?  I belong to many genealogical pages on Facebook.  It seems often times they all share the same thing.  So they are not writing any new stuff just sharing from anther's site.  If Family Search makes an announcement, I have at least 20 shared announcements on my feed, and a few emails.  It's almost to the point of annoyance.

So I decided this year I was not going to write on my blog for the sake of writing and sahring, but hopefully I will give you some insight and maybe things you had not thought of before to explore.

Now I know we all know about newspapers.  I think it is one of the sources I usually go to as a last resort, but I need to change that thinking.  Often times if we want to confirm a story or gain a little bit of light on an ancestors life, newspapers are the way to go. 

My favorite site to go to is .http://newspaperarchive.com  I think the site is easy to use and there is a wide variety of papers to select from.  If you are near a Family History Center, it is one of the paid sites you can use from free at the center.

I serve every Thursday in our center here in Utah.  Last Thursday as I was fishing around on the site I found some interesting things.  One item was a legal notice that confirmed what I had been told regarding my grandparents on my Mom's side.  My grandmother, Oh my such a character!  The other thing I found made me laugh!

My grandfather Vernon Moore that I have written about before here was born in Taylor, Texas and lived there for awhile with his wife Grace.  Grace came from a very large and close family.  This newspaper article I found said my grandfather's home was burglarized!  The story goes my grandmother went to Houston to visit family so my grandfather was "batching" it.  But food was not a problem as he had made two pies and even frosted one.  You frost pies?  He put the pies out to cool and then was called away.  I am guessing he was called away for an electrical problem since he climbed electrical poles.  When he returned his pies were gone, but a note was left.  "Thanks for the pies!  They were delicious!" 

I can only imagine the look on my grandfather's face when he came home to this.  Can you imagine if they had surveillance cameras or the technology we have today?  I think there was a practical joke being played here especially if he was called away.  We will never know the rest of the story.

The one thing I love too is I can get a subscription for a month and search for my ancestors in the newspaper. I have done this before and learned interesting things of their death.

So in your research don't forget the newspapers!