How do newspapers contribute to our genealogical journey? Where do I find them? I happened upon news articles when we lived in a small town in Kansas. Every week there were fun articles about who was visiting who, who traveled where, births, deaths, weddings, winning medals at the county fair, anything of interest to local community.
That started me thinking about our ancestors and the newspaper trail they may have left. What would these little articles add to my genealogy?? Articles really help flesh out the family trees. They add personal information and fun facts to our ancestors.
Ancestors become more than just a name and date. Your family may have a county judge, justice of the peace, won a prize in school, entered the Navy, served in the wars, bought land, owed taxes, or been involved in a crime. This is just some of the information I found searching newspaper articles about my family and my husband’s family.
My husband’s grandmother was Mary Lizzie Lee, born Nov 1883 in Rutherford County, North Carolina. From all that I know she was a sweet girl, one of the older ones in a family of eleven. She was the second girl. Lizzie’s family moved to Asheville, North Carolina before her 11th birthday.
Her father had a painting company in Asheville, North Carolina. They had a boarding house in their home. One of the painters, Marion Owen, lived there. He was 21 years old. Some say that Lizzie and Marion Owen had an infatuation. In September 1896, Lizzie and Marion hired a wagon, horse, and driver and ran off to South Carolina to get married.
Lizzie’s father found out they ran off and caught them about 50 miles from Asheville. The couple informed her father that they had gotten married and showed him a marriage certificate with a preacher’s signature. Her father later informed the Asheville newspaper that he believed the marriage certificate was bogus. They did not have time to get married.
Her father contacted the authorities who came to arrest Marion Owen (who had run into the woods on the return to Asheville). Marion was taken to jail, appeared in court, and given $300 bail (which he could not pay). Eventually he was able to pay the bail. Then he disappeared from Asheville. His family thought he was dead due to a letter he wrote to them that his body could be found in the river. He later turned up at the family home.
I was not able to find any more information in the newspaper about Marion until 10-15 years later when he moved to Gaston County, North Carolina, became a painter, married again, had children and developed a reputation in the area as a talented artist.
Even though Lizzie’s father stated that the marriage did not take place, in March 1897, there was a divorce granted for Lizzie from Marion Owen. No one in my husband’s family knew anything about this marriage. She married Charles Fisher in 1901 and had ten children with him. No mention was ever made about Marion Owen to any of the family.
So how did I find all this information?? From Newspapers.com website and Newspaper Archive. Sometimes it takes a little digging to find your ancestor. Not each site has every newspaper, but you may find one for your ancestor. All of the above information about Lizzie and Marion Owen was found in articles in the Asheville newspaper. Don’t ignore newspapers, they are a valuable resource to add flavor and information to your family tree.
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