Extra! Extra! Read All About It! (Newspapers.com)

Recently, while doing a huge research project,  I decided to try out a week long trial for the website newspapers.com.  It was a smart move.  I was able to find so many newspaper articles pertaining to the people I was researching.  I suggest to anyone doing research in the 19th or 20th century to try it out.  There are fun stories about  people if they lived in a small town, there are obituaries that give clues for further research, and there are other articles which help add to your quest for finding out more about your ancestors. 

My own personal experience with newspapers.com and how it helped me find out more information about a person I was researching follows.

Frank Levy was born in the mid 1840s in Bohemia.  He and his wife Mary were in the 1870 Census of Braidwood, Illinois, a mining town outside of Chicago, Illinois.  In 1885, they were living in Saunders County, Nebraska.  It was common for miners to farm somewhere during certain times of the year and live elsewhere to work in the mines during certain times of the year.  This was the case with Frank Levy.  In the 1900 Census, I found his wife Mary, a widow, living with her two youngest children in Nebraska.  There had been a fifteen year lapse between the two census records, so I assumed Frank had died in Nebraska sometime during that time period.  I could not find a death record nor could I find a cemetery record.  However, after doing a search for Frank Levy using my trial subscription of newspapers.com, I found out the real story of what happened to Frank Levy.

In a local newspaper for Saunders County, Nebraska, I saw a short clip of information from published court cases.  This article was dated in the fall of 1894.  It read:

"Frank and John Levy vs. Mary Levy . . . involving distribution of property following . . . a                               separation of Frank and Mary Levy.

Then, another search, from the Chicago Tribune, in February 1895:

"Frank Levy because of domestic trouble . . .  Levy has a wife in Nebraska, with whom he has not lived for eight years.”  This same article proceeds to describe Frank’s attempted suicide which led to his death. 

So Frank did, in fact, pass away between 1885 and 1900, but it was on different terms (separation from his wife for several years) and it was in a different city and state.  

But the research didn't stop here.  The same newspaper article mentions that Frank was living with his sister Josephine Schneider.  That tidbit led to finding the names of his sister plus two brothers, all living in Chicago, as well as the names of his parents!

From two newspaper articles found on newspapers.com, I was able to search additional records and was able to find a death date, a death place, and additional family members for Frank Levy.

So when I "read all about it, " I found "extra, extra" information about Frank Levy.  You, too, should give newspapers.com a try.