Notes from the Publisher
of TheOldenTimes.com -
Historic Newspapers Online
Genealogy & History
"Clues from the News!"
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December 11, 2000
Hi ya'll! I hope you're enjoying The Olden Times.
I just have to tell you what I've found since beginning this project, without having had any expectations of finding anything!
Last week, while browsing through the pages of the December 5, 1903 Dallas Morning News, I noticed a headline about West Texas doctors. My great-grandfather had been a doctor out in the northwest Texas county of Haskell, so I read the article. Sure enough, there he was! Dr. E. E. GILBERT attended a meeting of area doctors and even presented a paper on pneumonia.
A funnier coincidence? I'm just getting over a bout of pneumonia, myself!
Then tonight, I started paging through a volume of 1909 Galveston, Texas newspapers. I don't know of any of my ancestors who ever lived in that part of the state, so I had no expectation of seeing any familiar names. As I turned the pages, my attention was struck by an early color "comics" page, and I called to my husband in excitement. Of course, since he's not quite as enthusiastic about these old things as I am, it was a minute or two before he came in to see what I wanted to show him. While I waited, I kept turning pages, and then I saw it: a cousin of mine, written up as a Texas Boy Who Made Good in the East!
Yep, even better than a full page of color comics!
It's a rather long article, but you can see it here. The comics? I'm afraid not...it's a huge full page, with each section larger than my scanner bed. Sorry.
You never know who you'll find when you're looking in older newspapers, because it wasn't unusual for newspapers to print stories about people all over the state. Heck, if the story on the wire was interesting enough, it didn't matter where it came from...it got printed!
The moral of the story is: when you have a chance to look through any old newspaper, don't pass it up! Did your ancestors live in tiny little towns? Read the papers from the major cities throughout their state! In the 1909 Galveston papers, for example, I see all sorts of "society news" from all over the state of Texas. By "Society News" I don't mean the sort you'll see in today's city papers. I mean the tidbits like "Miss Sadie Gordon called on her cousins in Sweetwater last week."
Of course, the difference in reading your old news here is that I've indexed all the names!
By the way...those old Galveston papers are full of wonderful old photos of brides! They're fairly yellowed with age, but I'll do my best to scan them and post them for you to see.
I'd like to thank you for stopping by.
Well, that's all for now, ya'll. I have stories to scan!
Happy Hunting!
Barbara