One of the things that all of us who search our genealogy and family history can fall into - we always seem to search for surnames.

Obviously this is logical, but it can be a trap. Because, especially for newspapers - there is a lot of other information in articles that are pertinent to finding one of your ancestors. 

This is especially true when we have a "hard to spell" surname, or one that is spelled several different ways.  You can be sure that the journalists, always up against a deadline - did not check to make sure that all the names were spelled correctly.  And furthermore, for online newspaper databases, the quality of the original, the scan and the OCR process can indeed affect the outcome of the index that one is searching.

How about some examples that may lead to better results?

• Search for an address - if you know the address of an ancestor, search for it.  A lot of times newspapers would include the residence of someone - so that may be a good place to try.
• Search for a business name - if your ancestor owned a small business, you might be able to retrieve interesting articles by searching for that name.
• Search for a lodge or club - if your ancestor belonged to or was an officer in a club or lodge or other group - search for that name.
• Search for an occupation - if your ancestor had a unique occupation, try searching for that.
• Search for the name of a sports team or school - often your ancestor may show up in a box score or in a list of graduates.
• Search for the name of a military unit - if they were in the military, often the complete unit name is included in an article.
• Search for a hobby or avocation - did Aunt Mary win ribbons at the state fair?  Or did Uncle Joe collect coins?

In all of these cases it is recommended that you limit the search to a specific newspaper or town/city. I suspect that if you performed a nationwide search for "123 Elm Street" or "gasfitter" you might get too many results to pore over.

So if searching for surnames (again especially with a difficult to spell or with several alternative spellings) doesn't get you the results that you desire - try some of these alternatives listed above.  And you can always search for a surname AND some of these options if the site that you are using has Boolean search capability.

Good luck!

Finding information and articles in newspapers about your ancestors is incredibly rewarding.  It is my favorite type of research, genealogy-wise.

But if you are not careful you can make assumptions about what is in ink on the newsprint and foul up your research because of poor conclusions.

And it is easy to do, correct?  We fall into the trap of assuming that if it is published then it must be right.

So let's be careful out there.



Here are 6 ways to not screw up:

1. Just because the obituary states that your ancestor was a "native of" Boston, Massachusetts doesn't mean that they were born there.  He may have lived there for decades, or maybe his parents moved there when he was 3 months old and everyone assumed he was born there.  So just because the obit states the city that he was a "native of" does not mean he was born there.
2. There is a section in the Vitals area of the newspapers for Marriage Licenses.  So your ancestor or research target is listed there with their intended spouse. Guess what - the operative word is "intended."  Just because they got a license does not mean that a wedding took place.. You have more research to do.
3. Divorces Filed and Interlocutory Decrees are NOT Divorces. Only Divorces Granted count.
   
4. Don't assume that all articles are going to be in the newspapers of the state of residence for your ancestor.  If your target lived near the state border, check out neighboring state newspapers. For example, if they lived in Council Bluffs, Iowa, check out the Omaha, Nebraska papers.  Or if they lived in Camden, New Jersey, check out the Philadelphia newspapers. [Thanks to a recent reader for this tip].  Furthermore, interesting articles were copied all over the country.  My 3rd great uncle obtained possession of Geronimo's knife and the article was in papers in several states as a human interest story.
5. If you are searching for a woman, don't just search for her given name and married surname.  Often women who were adults and married were written as Mrs. Robert Smith rather than Gladys Smith for example.
6. Just because the obituary states that burial is to take place at Mountain View Cemetery doesn't mean that they were actually buried there.  There may have been a last minute change of plans by the family.  Or Mountain View was later closed and the gravestones and remains were moved to another cemetery.
   

The bottom line is that one should not assume that everything in the newspaper is correct.  These examples are just a few where improper conclusions can lead to documenting inaccurate facts and furthermore, wasting time in future research.