I have to admit, first thing, that I’m very envious of family historians who have access to historical newspapers and find their families in them all the time. Because the two places where my family lived – New Jersey and Maine – haven’t gotten into the digitized newspaper game yet, the clippings I have are those that have been handed down through the family. I am very grateful for the articles that I do have!

Here are a few of my favorites:

My grandmother, Hazel Coleman Adams, cut out her wedding announcement from the Calais newspaper, probably the Calais Advertiser, and saved it. I never thought to ask Grandmother about her wedding day, so this article tells me all that I will ever know. My grandparents married on 19 July 1920.

I do remember that Grandmother said Clara Dwelley was her best friend – she helped serve the refreshments. Pauline Stuart and Helen Tarbox were cousins of my grandfather.

This article, much later (1975), I found hilarious. (It’s safe to say that because no one was hurt.) Dave’s grandmother, Pearl, was 77 years old when this happened. I’m not sure how you drive a car INTO the store, but that is what she did. It happened in Norman, Oklahoma. The clipping is from The Norman Transcript and it looks like it was front page news. How embarrassing!

I had saved this article for many years – it’s about my kitten, Missy, who went up the tree in front of the house and couldn’t get back down. Howard, a childhood friend, saved the day! He also kindly shared this digital image of the article, which he has kept all these years. Mine disappeared decades ago. Missy was the sweetest little cat. The story was published in the Passaic Herald News.

My great grandfather, Hartwell Coleman, passed away on 29 March 1938 in Calais. His title of “Captain” wasn’t an honorific – he was a tug pilot and master mariner who sailed the waters in the Bay of Fundy and in Boston Harbor. This obituary would have been published in the Calais Advertiser, like my grandmother’s wedding announcement.

I don’t recognize the four pall bearers, but Fred McPheters, Phillip Becket and Fred Scott, were all born in 1898. I am guessing that they were classmates of my grandfather and knew the Coleman family. Luther Barnes was born in 1906, younger than the others, but he lived on River Road and perhaps was a neighbor of Hartwell Coleman.

This last article includes my mother-in-law, Ruby Sturgell Stufflebean. She was in the Class of 1937 of Anadarko (Oklahoma) High School, so this article was probably published around May 1937, but I have no idea about the name of the newspaper.

Ruby never did become a stenographer. She married Edward Stufflebean one year later, in June 1938, and was a stay-at-home mom except during World War II.

This brought back memories of my own high school days when we had our own questions and answers published. However, ours didn’t make the local newspaper, they only made it into the school newspaper!

What are your favorite newspaper articles? Are you one of the lucky ones who finds them in paper after paper or did you inherit them like me? Share your stories, please.