RECENTLY through a newspaper database that carries hundreds of small town newspapers I was able to break through some research blocks that had truly confounded me. Yes, I'm always working a little bit on my own research when I'm not researching for someone else.
A member of my grandfathers extended family was on the census but the married surname was truly one of the most confused I had ever encountered. It looked like it had been scratched out, erased, and written over again.
I had tried all my tricks to bust through to the correct spelling of this surname. Soundex for starters. Then a series of probable misspellings due to the bad handwriting maybe being transcribed by a hurried typist incorrectly - a's turned into o's and so on.
I actually found an engagement announcementusing a misspelling and then a picture of the bride on a newly acquired newspaper database. I REMINDED MYSELF THAT EACH AND EVERY LETTER OF THE NEWSPAPER HAD BEEN TYPESET and that MAYBE WHEN THE TYPESETTER RAN OUT OF ONE VOWEL OR ANOTHER they decided to substitute!
Not only that but the first name of the groom was listed as Lester, when it was actually Louis.
But now, invigorated by actually having a first picture of this ancestor, an informed intuition took over and I took one more guess at the surname, and was able to find a World War I draft record that most likely was the correct spelling in another databse! I CROSSCHECKED THE ADDRESS and it was right.
SMALL TOWN NEWSPAPERS are valuable because often just reading the page gives us a great idea about the events of the day and what was important to the people in that town. This one appears to be something of a local NATIONAL ENQUIRER! For only two years later - coming up with another misspelling - came the report that the bride was being sued for desertion of her husband! Perhaps this is why I found her living again with her parents on the very next census.
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