19th Century Newspaper Death Notices
Newspapers can be an invaluable source of historical information to put our ancestors’ lives in context. But they can also provide direct content, such as BDM—birth, death, marriage—dates, about our ancestors, too. I have found casual, social news about family, marriage announcements, death announcements, and obituaries in newspapers where they lived during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The information provided in a newspaper can vary greatly—from the limited data of a death notice:
Died—On Tuesday last, in this borough [Harrisburg], Miss Amelia, daughter of the last Judge Henry dec’d.1
to a short article:
During the storm of Thursday afternoon, Samuel Hocker was killed, in the vicinity of Spring Mills, Montgomery county, by lightning, while standing under a tree, with three other men. His companions were all stunned, but escaped without much injury.2
to a longer obituary:
Died—On Thursday the 3d instant, Thomas Girty, in the 90th year of his age.
The name of this veteran, and of some of his family, is associated with some of the most interesting events in the history of the first settlement of this country. Could the incidents of his life be collected they would form a valuable work, and give a proper idea of the intrepidity, enterprise, and heavy sufferings of that class of early settlers, who were formerly called Indian Hunters. Girty was born in 1731, in Shennan’s valley. He was taken prisoner with his whole family in ’55 by the Indians, and brought to Fort Kittaning, where his step father was burnt in his presence, at the stake. After this hellish transaction the four brothers and mother were sent off among the different tribes of the Northwestern Indians. Thomas Girty made his escape and fell in with General Armstrong. The rest of the family were exchanged in the year ’58 at General Forbes’ treaty.3
So, don’t discount newspapers because your ancestor wasn’t famous or a person of great importance. You might not find anything. But you might just hit the genealogy jackpot.
Footnotes
- Kristen Hocker, Marriages and Death Notices from the Harrisburg Chronicle, 1820—1834 (Boston, Massachusetts: self-published, 2011), page 71. ↩
- Author unknown, Philadelphia Inquirer, 6 Sep 1852; index and image, Genealogybank.com, “Newspaper Archives (1690-2010)” (https://www.genealogybank.com : 2013); citing original, page 1. ↩
- Hocker, Marriages and Death Notices from the Harrisburg Chronicle, 1820—1834, page 71. ↩
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Kris Hocker, "19th Century Newspaper Death Notices," A Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogy, the genealogy & family research site of Kris Hocker, modified 24 Jul 2014 (https://www.krishocker.com/19th-century-newspaper-death-notices/ : accessed 18 Apr 2024).
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