All posts by Linda Stufflebean

Linda is a retired special education teacher, who is also a 35+ year genealogy addict.
Artificial Intelligence

A New One for Me – iLands????

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I found this in my email this morning:

Bots are definitely trolling websites, as this bot found my Saturday Night Genealogy Fun post about the parish of St. Demetrius, which serves the villages of Hajtovka and Udol, Slovakia.

It looks like it has collected free images available on Wikimedia taken in Hajtovka. No, I didn’t click on any links.

Notice it also says “If a grounded set like this would be worth keeping, I can have it printed and sent for $20.”

Nope, I think that offer is a hard pass.

Be aware from where and who your emails are coming!!! In this case, it wasn’t even a WHO, it’s a WHAT.

Douthit

12 for ’26: Andrew Douthit & Mary Reynolds, Newton County, MO

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Moving along with the Douthit descendants, Andrew Douthit was the seventh child and fourth son of Abraham Douthit and Valinda Jarvis.

Andrew was born 29 March 1829 in Davidson County, North Carolina and likely had few memories of his early life there. By 1840, the family was in Vineyard Township, Washington, Arkansas and, soon after that, permanently put down roots in Van Buren, Newton, Missouri, where Andrew spent the rest of his life.

Andrew Douthit married Mary Reynolds on 22 January 1852 in Newton County.

Mary died on 6 March 1904 and Andrew died 12 years later on 13 August 1916, both in Newton County, Missouri.

They had a large family of ten children, all of whom lived to adulthood and married.

All events in Newton County, Missouri unless otherwise noted.

Children (Douthit)

  1. Sarah Ann, born 4 September 1853; died 25 March 1879; married Joshua Sult, 20 August 1869.
  2. Susan Angeline, born 26 February 1855; died 2 February 1936, Lawrence County, Missouri; married James Alexander Beaven, 16 July 1876.
  3. James Franklin, born 12 January 1857; died 4 February 1931; married Mary Jane Elliott, c1877
  4. Thomas Burton, born 31 December 1858; died 3 July 1942, Edmond, Oklahoma, Oklahoma; married Grace Alma Sanders, 28 September 1890.
  5. Judah Caroline, born 25 October 1860; died 13 January 1942, Pratt County, Kansas; married Louis Albert Griffith, 12 March 1879.
  6. Nancy Isabelle, born 25 December 1862; died 26 September 1962, Los Angeles County, California; married Theodore O. Simerman, 23 December 1883.
  7. Margaret Elizabeth, born 23 August 1866; died 22 December 1939, San Antonio, Bexar, Texas; married Charles Ellis Cook, 2 November 1890.
  8. Sanford Joseph, born 25 January 1868; died 11 October 1941, Lawrence County, Missouri; married Edna McReynolds, 24 June 1914, Lawrence County, Missouri. They had no children.
  9. William Calvin, born 28 March 1870; died 10 February 1957; married Tabitha Rachel Henry, 28 April 1892.
  10. Abraham Lee, born 4 March 1873; died 11 March 1951, Oakland, Alameda, California; married Annie Marie Taylor, 9 February 1898, Pulaski county, Arkansas.

As most of Andrew’s and Mary’s children had families of their own, there are many descendants today. If you know where to find James Franklin Douthit’s marriage record, please leave a comment!

Newspapers

Many Reasons to Read the Newspapers!

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Although newspapers are quite a well-known resource for genealogists, I still hear people say, “Oh, my family didn’t do anything newsworthy” or “The place where my family lived was really small and it didn’t have a newspaper.”

Both of those assumptions are very wrong because, as I’ve said in the past, newspapers were the social media of the day. EVERYTHING got in the newspaper and those really small towns that didn’t have a paper were often included in the news columns of a nearby larger town.

While historical newspapers might help with your research, for the most part, newspapers didn’t start including lots of local news items until later in the 1800s. The 1900s were pretty much the heyday because most local papers today don’t include items like engagement announcements and results of local sports teams. The social news used to be published for free.

Here are nine excellent reasons to seek out those newspapers, which might well be found on subscriptions sites such as Newspapers.com and Newspaperarchive.com, but it is well worth a month’s subscription to scour the papers for news of your family.

  1. Vital records – Births, marriages and deaths were shared with the community. I have the news clipping announcing my own birth at the local hospital. I also remember the fun at finding out my second grade teacher was getting married. My Nana read the obituaries every day. By the time I was ten, I was aware that Nana’s family lived in UjakUdol, Slovakia so I started reading the obits, too, and excitedly told her whenever the person who passed away was from Ujak. This is a real treasure trove for places that either didn’t formally record these events or else had a courthouse fire.
  2. Social News – The Ladies’ and Men’s Clubs, Scouts, church events, school plays and fundraisers were all in the social pages of the paper. I even found out that Nana was in a church group that I didn’t know about in the early 1940s. Going on vacation or returning home? You’ll find that in the social columns, too.
  3. Military Service – The paper always carried news of servicemen on active duty. During the wars, battles were mentioned, wounds, MIA, and bravery awards were duly reported, as were the dates entering and leaving military service. Think of the lost WWII records – the newspaper can help fill the void of information.
  4. Health Status/Accidents – HIPA definitely wasn’t around in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Every serious illness, hospitalization, surgery, job-related events and accidents were news items to be published.
  5. Politics – Aside from national and state politics, local political news was a popular feature. Who was running for office? Town debates were held, delegates were chosen to attend conventions, and Election Day results all made the front page. One of my husband’s ancestors was mentioned in an Ohio article that identified the town Copperheads – Southerners living in the North, but supporting the Confederacy during the Civil War. He probably wasn’t very well liked at the time.
  6. School News – I’ve already mentioned school news in the social events columns, but in addition to school plays, new teachers were introduced to the community and those retiring thanked for their service. Even in the late 1900s, newspapers published the names of every single graduate of every high school, public and private, in the area. Sports was obviously a popular topic, as were special awards and honors earned by students.
  7. Court Dockets – A variety of court information was required to be published. Everything from public fighting to drunkeness to traffic accidents and theft made the news. Divorce wasn’t easy to obtain in many places, so if a couple filed, that was huge gossipy news for friends and neighbors. More mundane items like real estate transactions and notices of probate also had to be published for public knowledge.
  8. Want Ads – Don’t overlook the want ads! Information about jobs, rooms for rent, and items being bought and sold make for interesting reading. When I was about 12, my parents let me place a want ad in the paper to sell my bicycle as we had moved from Passaic with nice flat blocks to Wayne and our house was perched on a hillside. Here’s an extra tip – when searching newspapers, be sure to include addresses of interest and phone numbers. Sometimes, ads only included a phone number or address.
  9. Lastly, but certainly not least, if you are lucky, you might find a photograph of your ancestor. They won’t be the best quality, but it will surely depict a special event in his or her life, otherwise, there would be no need for a photo with a news article.

Happy Hunting!