School Records

12 for ’26: Where to Find School News

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It’s been said before, but well worth repeating. Local newspapers were the social media of the day, particularly throughout the 20th century.

Families often saved news clippings whenever a child, parent, grandparent or extended family member was mentioned.

School principals and teachers contacted the town news office to share any and all school news. Sports really didn’t become big local school news until the mid-20th century.

However, school honor rolls were frequently published. A school play was big news and, while not every child in the play was mentioned in the article, a summary of the play, the teacher, class and school and, occasionally, a photograph were published.

I was in a fifth grade play about George Washington in February 1962 (5th grade was American History) and, sure enough, there was a blurb in the paper about Mrs. Wallace’s class being the stars.

Looking for info on school band concerts? Special school delegations to state events? School dances? Penpal exchange programs? Class trips?

They will all be part of the “news of the day.”

My family, like many others, saved a few clippings, but using online (subscription) sites, I was able to collect well over 100 articles and news items.

Curious about your teachers’ lives? I’ve found marriage, retirement and death notices, plus a couple of photographs, of most of my teachers. They were definitely a huge part of our lives growing up, whether we loved or hated them!

Fortunately, most news clippings haven’t been lost forever, thanks to the digital age.

A final school resource most of us know are school yearbooks. Sadly, my elementary school didn’t have yearbooks, but my husband’s did so he has several, including a couple from elementary school.

Ancestry and MyHeritage have school yearbook collections, but they cover high school and college years. Check sites like EBay for elementary and junior high yearbooks if your school printed them.

If you know they had yearbooks, but don’t own and can’t find one, contact the town public library. They might have yearbooks in their town history collections. As a last resort, try the librarian at your school. Schools usually kept copies of their own yearbooks.

They can add details about your ancestor’s life – school interests, nicknames, clubs to which they belonged, sports interests and even if they were voted “Most . . . .” at some point in his/her school career.

You;d be surprised at how much you can learn about an ancestor’s personality based on school records or . . . . .bring back some of your own memories.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: An Unusual Newspaper Article About Your Ancestors

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It’s Saturday so it’s time for a new Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings:

1) Have you found an unusual, chilling, amazing, or fascinating newspaper article about your ancestors? 

2)  If so, please share the article and what you learned about your ancestor(s) from the article.  Provide a source citation too!

My great grandfather, Charles Edwin Adams, died on 24 January 1922, quite suddenly in Calais, Washington, Maine.

His death notice (followed a couple of days later by a very flowery obituary) only touches on the unusual cause of Charles’s death.

In the family lore that came down to me, there was a strong warning to never trim one’s nose hairs! That always sounded a bit odd to me and my mother didn’t know the origin of this admonition.

However, my grandmother, Hazel (Coleman) Adams did know the backstory, which she shared with me when I asked.

Charles, or Charlie as he was called, decided about a day before his death to trim his nose hair. While doing so, he cut the skin around his nose and it quickly became infected.

A day later, he was dead.

What was the ‘blood poison’ that killed him? He died of a strep infection six years before the discovery of penicillin.

Charles had celebrated his 45th birthday just 13 days before he died.

These announcements were followed by a full obituary:

I inherited these articles from my grandfather’s cousin, Charles Chadwick, whose mother was Charles Adams’ younger sister. They were found among a stack of papers.

It is very likely that all were clipped from the Calais Advertiser newspaper. However, in spite of me continually begging the publisher to digitize this newspaper (I was told it was a project to be done on 2024), which began publishing in 1835, it has not happened so I can only assume their origins.

A source citation will have to wait!

Thank you, Randy and Lisa Gorrell, for another fun challenge.

New York Resources, Research

NYC Historical Vital Records Project

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A couple of days ago, I shared a website for Cook County, Illinois records – a place which isn’t terribly user-friendly for genealogists.

It seems only fair that today, I share a website for another huge city that also isn’t known for being overly helpful to genealogists. that would be New York City, New York.

Not only does New York State charge some steep fees for accessing historical records, but Reclaim the Records has successfully sued the state in the past over that very issue and won in court.

The New York City government has perhaps finally gotten onboard with sharing its vital records with the public.

The NYC Historical Vital Records Project is a huge database that is still growing with over 10 million records covering from 1855 through 1949.

Birth, marriage and death records are in this searchable collection.

Most users will browse through the search boxes on the left, but if you have a certificate number and surname, the search would begin in the right side boxes.

Now, this browsing function isn’t the quickest to navigate. I’d recommend narrowing down to one borough with a very small range of years because there is no place to enter a surname.

Therefore, results look like this:

Instead of browsing, the browse results page has another Search tab at the top. Click on that and a much more manageable system appears:

These results are much easier to navigate. I didn’t limit the year, but made up the name “John Sabo” and chose Manhattan for the borough. Only 10 results came up:

Notice, though, that the results included “John Sabo” and six men named John who married Sabo wives.

The website is free and offers a great opportunity to search for New York City family members for free. An unofficial record can be saved, but official certified copies can be purchased online.

As with Cook County, I have no family ties to New York City, either, but for those who are seeking NYC ancestors, the NYC Historical Vital Records Project is a terrific place to start.

Genealogy Tips & Family History