52 Ancestors Week 29: Newsworthy

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 29's theme is "Newsworthy." Did any of your ancestors make it into the paper? What's an event that would have been newsworthy in their lifetime?

PARKER! QUIT DOING YOUR FAMILY TREE AND GET ME PICTURES OF SPIDER-MAN!

Is it weird that I can actually HEAR JK Simmons's J. Jonah Jameson in the caption? That man was clearly born to play the cranky Marvel Comics' newspaper publisher. I was pleasantly surprised to see him in last year's "Spider-Man: Far From Home" because he was amazing in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy from the early 2000s. Here's hoping he returns in Spider-Man 3!

Anyway, when it comes to being in the news, my family has made it into the paper many times. They weren't just in the obituaries! My family showed up in articles ranging from a fire at a Salisbury beach motel to even a story about a lost dog being found. That last article, by the way, was in a box my aunt so graciously gave me a few weeks ago. I haven't scanned it. I will get around to it, eventually! 

Naturally, anyone can find these and many more articles if you use Newspapers.com. The website is the Internet's leading archive of newspaper articles from all over the country. If you have an ancestor who was born in America, chances are you can find the person in the paper! Yes. Newspapers.com is an amazing website. However, the article I am going to talk about today was NOT found there. Shocking, I know.

No pictures?! PARKER!!!!!!!!!

A few weeks ago I made a passing mention of this article in this blog. I think it's about time we dig into it a little further because this article has a ton of genealogical information and is proof that you can find a ton of information about your family in a newspaper.

Let's refresh your memory. The article to the right is about an open house held by my 2x great-grandparents, Joseph Laplante and Georgianna Ross of Newburyport, Massachusetts. This was published on June 4th, 1945 in the Newburyport Daily News and Newburyport Herald. I found this article on the Newburyport Public Library website. The site itself is smaller than Newspapers.com. But, it gets the job done. The only drawback is that sometimes the quality of the pictures in the article leave a lot to be desired. At least I found great articles like this one because this was definitely news to my mother and everyone else in the family. Let's break it down, shall we?

That's Joseph Laplante in the front and behind him is Georgianna.

Right off the bat the article mentions that the open house was for the couple's fiftieth wedding anniversary. They were married on June 3rd, 1895. This was previously confirmed by a document I found online. However, if you were just starting out, this and several other facts would be very important. 

The article goes on to mention the couples' parents and provides a rough estimate of their ages in 1945, their parents and where the couple was born. 

Clara, my great-grandmother, was even mentioned as one of their children. Grandchildren were listed as well since in mentioned my grandfather as being in Italy and serving the Air Force at the time of this open house. Great-grandchildren were even mentioned. However, they were probably very young at the time. No names were used as they were more than likely minors.

There were even some interesting facts about Joseph that you wouldn't get easily. He was a mill worker before becoming a barber. That, we didn't know about. We knew he was a barber. My mother remembers him when she was growing up. He and Georgianna lived nearby and all that. Still, we didn't know about him working in a mill and there were plenty of them around the Merrimack Valley.

Another thing that caught my eye in the article was a list of the callers to the house. One of the people who stopped by was a bridesmaid of Georgianna's. Her name was Hannah Casey. In my research of the Ross family, I found that a Ross married a Casey. I wonder if she was connected to that family. It definitely is worth investigating!

If you were just starting your genealogical adventure, you'd find a treasure trove of information which can help you get started. A small tree would have been made and you can then look for more things not readily found in a database. It just goes to show that newspapers have been and always will be a vital source for genealogical information. Check yours out today!

Oh and before I leave, a family member did graciously give me a picture from the event. The quality isn't as good as I would have hoped. However, beggars can't be choosers. Go out there and see if you can find your ancestors in newspapers! They're out there!!

Not a bad looking crew.