For those unaware, Google News has an archives section that goes back to prior to 1920. You've got to pay for the complete articles, but they give you snippets. And once you know the newspaper and date, its possible you know people in the localities who have access to the newspaper archives through local libraries and such, so you might not need to pay, though its inexpensive.
As an example, I searched for the surname Cruvant. There are 53 results. A lot are articles written by a Dr. Bernard Cruvant, who was my grandfather's first cousin. I'm somewhat curious what he had to say about spanking children in 1949, but I was more pleased to discover the obituary in the Baton Rouge Advocate for Bernard's brother-in-law, Sammie Brown. Even the short free snippet contained his exact time of death, and the fact he competed on the LSU track team. Not a direct ancestor, but still interesting information to add to their files.
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WOW! I had no idea that the Google News Archive goes back that far in time. You are wonderful for mentioning it!!
ReplyDeleteJanice