The other thing you have to figure out is where the local paper is/was, and
where the archives are today. In Tippecanoe County, the local paper(s) was
usually in Lafayette, although at various times there was a local paper in
many of the small towns, and some information may be in papers in nearby
communities in other counties. Here the Lafayette papers are on microfilm
in the Tippecanoe County Public Library in Lafayette. Other papers are less
accessible. Some are on microfilm in the newspaper project at the Indiana
State Museum. Assorted clippings and columns have been placed in TIPCOA in
scrapbooks and files, which are indexed by name.
I once was looking for articles on a death in a shipwreck that took place
in Rhode Island. The couple were residents of a town in Massachusetts, but
the wife was a native of a small town in Maine. We had some clippings from
Rhode Island. Letters to a public library in Massachusetts turned up
another. By writing to public libraries and existing papers in Maine, we
finally located a clipping from a local paper (source not identified) and
another from a paper from a large city some distance away.
Information in newspapers is not always correct, but it can shed very
interesting light on the past. It has to be evaluated, like anything else.
Not only can you find death information, but sometimes personal glimpses.
For one of my families I have found what is probably the advertisement for
sale of the land they bought when they arrived here in 1849, reports of a
major house fire, the listing of a judgment, occasional reports about the
weather and the crops, and listing as judges at agricultural fairs in the
19th century. For another I found the listing of contributions to a fund to
aid the victims of the Franco-Prussian war. The local items in the 19th and
early 20th century may have anything from reports of minor illness or who
had Sunday dinner with whom to visits from out of town relatives and jokes
played on neighbors and family reunions as well as more major events such
as major illnesses and deaths. Occasionally during the Civil War years you
will find articles about war rallies, fund raisers, and contributions with
names you may be looking for. If you have access to microfilm archives, it
is a time-consuming project to read the old papers, but it can turn up
information that will bring your ancestors to life.
Susan Y. Clawson (clawsons(a)purdue.edu)
Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures
1359 Stanley Coulter Hall
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1359
TEL (765) 494-3843
FAX (765) 496-1700
http://www.sla.purdue.edu/fll/PSRL/