Introduction: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this guest blog post, Mary fantasizes about being able to invite some of her famous ancestors—including flight pioneers the Wright brothers—to a family reunion.

I’ve got a number of friends who get excited about fantasy football.

Whereas this is quite a snoozer for me, I see their point. They love to discuss and theorize about favorite football players—which is not unlike family historians when they get together, who assert their knowledge about favorite genealogical finds. And genealogists love to discuss their favorite ancestors!

Nobody can really speak for their ancestors, of course, but you can—in a round-about way—introduce them at your next family reunion. Someone could present a written report on their favorite ancestor, or the more theatrical members at your reunion could re-enact times and events surrounding your more noteworthy (or notorious) ancestors.

So if you could invite any relation (direct or otherwise) to your next family reunion, who would it be?

The Wright Brothers

One of my choices would be my latest cousin discovery: aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright, who share Edmund Freeman (1737-1813) and Martha Otis (1737-1790) as mutual ancestors.

I’d love to ask the Wright brothers if they were apprehensive about their flying machine when it first took flight. I’ve read the patents and various reports about their incredible aviation invention, but it would be wonderful to get their first-hand accounts.

Patent No. 821, 393 of 2 May 1906 (available for viewing at Google Patents):

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ORVILLE WRIGHT and WILBUR WRIGHT, citizens of the United States, residing in the city of Dayton, county of Montgomery, and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements, in Flying-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to that class of flying-machines in which the weight is sustained by the reactions resulting when one or more aeroplanes are moved through the air edgewise at a small angle of incidence, either by the application of mechanical power or by the utilization of the force of gravity.

This old newspaper article from 1903 reports that the Wright brothers’ flying machine flew three miles against the wind.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas), 18 December 1903, page 1

If Orville Wright were alive, I’d love to see him fly his hydro-aero-boat invention. This 1913 newspaper article describes him, not as an aviator, but as a “noted birdman,” and reports that Wilbur Wright had been stricken with scarlet fever. What fun that Orville’s flying boat was tested on “Mad River”!

Evening Times (Grand Forks, North Dakota), 5 December 1913, page 10

Accused Witch Lydia Gilbert

Another on my list of ancestors I’d invite to my family reunion would be accused witch Lydia, wife of Thomas Gilbert. This travesty occurred in October of 1651, reportedly in Hartford, Connecticut (not Salem, Massachusetts). At the time, Lydia and her husband were living in the household of Henry Stiles. A neighbor, Thomas Allyn, was present when a gun discharged, slaying Stiles. Allyn was found guilty of “homicide by misadventure” but three years later, Lydia and others were accused at a Court of Oyer and Terminer of having caused the deed by witchcraft.

Poor Lydia. Wouldn’t you love to hear from her and to reassure her that witchcraft trials were finally put to rest when Governor Phils dissolved this particular Court on 29 October 1692. (Note: that didn’t put an end to all Courts of Oyer and Terminer, a term easily searchable in GenealogyBank. Such courts were authorized to oversee certain criminal cases.)

GenealogyBank’s newspaper archives don’t date to 1651 (although they do contain the first newspaper published in America, Publick Occurrences, in 1690), but there are various references to witch trials contained in the old newspapers, including this photo of the Old Witch House taken in 1914.

Anaconda Standard (Anaconda, Montana), 26 June 1914, page 1

Oyster Cracker Inventor Adam Exton and Wife Elizabeth Aspden

Although not household names today, British immigrants Adam Exton (1823-1887) and wife Elizabeth Aspden (1821-1894) were well known in Trenton, New Jersey, during their lifetime. Adam Exton was the inventor of the oyster cracker, a recipe which became immensely popular. I’d love to invite both of them to my family reunion as well.

I’d like to inquire why Adam Exton didn’t patent this particular invention, as it was soon stolen—and to this day some still disclaim him as the inventor of the delicious invention. However, this piece of family provenance is substantiated in a 1917 newspaper article written by his nephew, also named Adam Exton, who worked in the cracker factory and knew his uncle personally.

Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey), 31 May 1917, page 4

If you’d like to know more about this topic, search the Web for “Adam Exton’s cracker factory.” The factory still exists and has been renovated into condominiums, known as the Trenton Lofts.

So as family reunion season approaches, consider inviting a few “virtual” ancestors to the party, and don’t forget to search GenealogyBank’s historical archives for the family trivia. You might even uncover a news report of a previous family reunion. When I input “family reunion” into GenealogyBank’s search box, almost 100,000 matches return! Many of these old news articles include old family reunion photos that show the whole family the way they were in the past. What great find to share with the rising generation at your next family get-together so that the young ones can see their ancestors’ faces.

GenealogyBank search box for “family reunion”

So which ancestors would you place on your “fantasy ancestral team”? Please share your more extraordinary ancestral finds with us!

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Genealogy Blog and be sure to visit Genealogy Bank to start researching your ancestry online.

GenealogyBank’s Erie, Pennsylvania, newspaper archives provides coverage from 1833 to Today. That is 180 years of Erie news online for you to explore your genealogy! Search at the click of a mouse and find the birth, marriage and obituary notices of your “Keystone State” ancestors now.

Photo: Downtown skyline of Erie, Pennsylvania. Credit: Wikipedia; Pat Noble.

Here is an example of an old obituary and a marriage announcement that appeared in the Erie, Pennsylvania, newspapers.

F. X. Liebel’s obituary appeared in the Erie Labor Press (Erie, Pennsylvania), 10 December 1921, page 4, and the Laird-Russel wedding announcement appeared in the Observer (Erie, Pennsylvania), 13 April 1833, page 3

Here is a list of our online Erie, PA, newspapers currently available in the archives. Each Erie newspaper title contains a hyperlink taking you directly to that newspaper’s search page where you can begin tracing your family tree. Click now and start discovering your Pennsylvania ancestry!

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Genealogy Blog and be sure to visit Genealogy Bank to start researching your ancestry online.

If you committed murder in 1755 you were dealt with severely. However, the punishment for the crime was not always the same for a man as it was for a woman.

Evening Post (Boston, Massachusetts), 22 September 1755, page 4

In this article from an old 1700s newspaper, we learn that a man and a woman servant were found guilty of the murder of their master. The woman was burned at the stake for the crime.

Meanwhile the man was hanged on the gallows, and then later his body was hung in the town square by a chain.

Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL, the Legal Genealogist, will be speaking this Saturday to the Seattle Genealogical Society about the differences in applying the law and punishments between men and women throughout history. Her remarks are entitled: “Don’t Forget the Ladies—A Genealogist’s Guide to Women and the Law.” Get the event details at the Seattle Genealogical Society website here: http://seattlegenealogicalsociety.org/content/seminars.

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Genealogy Blog and be sure to visit Genealogy Bank to start researching your ancestry online.

How many stories can a family remember and pass down? Some of the great family stories from the past were not recorded and have been forgotten. Time after time genealogists have found amazing stories in their ancestry research that they never knew about their family.

Look at what we learn from the obituary of Joseph Babington (1837-1922), an early Idaho pioneer.

Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho), 30 April 1922, page 2

In the spring of 1862 Babington crossed the Great Plains by ox train in a caravan of 80 wagons. The trip included many Indian fights, and he had his horse shot out from under him multiple times. One time the American Indians stole the pioneers’ oxen “and he tracked the animals and while the enemy slept brought them back again.”

Babington’s story reads like so many of my favorite Westerns!

“Crossing the Snake River in Idaho, the wagons had to be taken apart three times and rafted over the treacherous stream.”

Think about that: three times the pioneers had to take apart the wagons just to get them across the river. Now—look at this detail about their journey across America provided in the old newspaper: “Cattle accompanied the train and in the morning after milking a certain quantity was suspended in strong holders over the rear wheels, the jolting of which manufactured all the butter required.”

Funny. What great family stories. We need to find these stories, document them and make sure they get preserved in the family so that they are not lost.

Babington’s obituary has all of the usual genealogical facts—but the details it provides about the tough life of an American pioneer give us the rest of his story, and will be treasured by the family forever. We might think we’re living in tough times today—but look at what our ancestors had to do just to survive!

Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho), 30 April 1922, page 2

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Genealogy Blog and be sure to visit Genealogy Bank to start researching your ancestry online.

Introduction: Scott Phillips is a genealogical historian and owner of Onward To Our Past® genealogy services. In this guest blog post, Scott explains how he adds his own personal touch to the “5 Ws” (Who, What, When, Where & Why) of newspaper journalism to enliven his family history research.

Recently I wrote here on the GenealogyBank.com blog about how much I love the 5 Ws (Who, What, When, Where & Why) of good, high-quality newspaper reporting for my genealogy and family history work. There is little better than finding an interesting article in one of the thousands of GenealogyBank.com newspapers that contains your ancestor’s name, and then topping that off by finding that the reporter adhered to the newspaperwoman/man’s mantra of the 5 Ws. Most decidedly, to me, it just doesn’t get much better than this! However, since none of us genealogy-crazy folks ever leave something well enough alone, I like to add my own FAVs to the 5 Ws. Now, while I know this won’t win me a Pulitzer or anything, my FAVs do help my family search efforts.

My FAV(orites) are this: Fun, Adventure, and Value.

First, FUN: One of my key precepts as a genealogist is that we must always keep the fun in our work. If we hope to attract the interest of others to genealogy and family history, one of the easiest ways to do this is by making it fun! Whenever I am doing genealogy research in newspapers I am reminded that my father always began his day, every day, with the funny pages of the newspaper. Although a businessman through-and-through, he said the news and business of the day could wait while he started his day with a smile and a chuckle. I have wonderful memories of my dad in his crisp white shirt and tie, coffee mug in hand, and seeing his eyes sparkling as he laughed at the funnies. So it is from these vivid memories that I keep the fun in my genealogy in a variety of ways. One of which is that whenever I am searching old newspapers I make sure to check the funnies.

If nothing else I enjoy seeing how some of my favorites have changed over the years, like good old Dagwood Bumstead of the “Blondie” comic; I found this example in a 1938 newspaper. That day’s comic featured a coal-fired furnace (like my grandparents’ home had), old-fashioned telephone switchboard (which I recall from my old hometown), and much more all in one comic. Times like this give me what I call “a minute vacation” and the fun refreshes me for the work ahead.

Richmond Times Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia), 11 December 1938, page 115

Second, ADVENTURE: I also love discovering in old newspaper articles the adventures that our ancestors had. As a matter of fact, just two days ago I was beginning my genealogy research on the Fortelka family branch in our family tree when I discovered Frank Fortelka aka “The Bohemian Cyclone”!

Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 11 April 1895, page 3

Not only did I get to follow The Cyclone’s career as a boxer, but also his career after that when he became a member of the “thin blue line” as a police officer for the city of Cleveland, Ohio. I also learned that The Cyclone was known to use his fisticuffs abilities against ne’re-do-wells in that city, often being reported to take on groups of twenty or more, successfully subdue them, and bring them to justice—with only his fists! Wow, talk about a real-life adventure and superhero! Then I got treated to his photograph, along with his wife’s picture for good measure, in a 1947 newspaper article about the golden wedding anniversary of The Bohemian Cyclone and his wife.

Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 26 October 1947, page 16

Third, VALUE: Another of my mantras in my genealogy work is to capture the persona, not just the data, of my ancestors. I believe that nothing adds more value to my family tree quite like the insight into the real persona of my ancestors that I gain from newspaper articles. I find great value in newspapers’ photographs, in-depth information, stories, and articles on the times my ancestors lived, and much, much more. The last time I looked at my family tree I found that I have more than 320 newspaper articles attached to the profiles of my family members and ancestors! Now that is what I call adding value. Of course, while I love the value these impart to me, I am even more thrilled when their value is realized by others.

For instance, whenever I get to share a newly discovered newspaper account about one of our ancestors with my 93-year-old Mother I get to see the happiness in her eyes and hear the excitement in her voice. Now that, my friends, is adding real value!

From the author’s collection

So tell me—what do you add to the 5 Ws in newspaper journalism as you work on your family tree?

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Genealogy Blog and be sure to visit Genealogy Bank to start researching your ancestry online.

GenealogyBank has Richardson, Texas, newspapers online dating back to 1920.

Photo: Main Street, Richardson, Texas, circa 1923. Credit: Wikipedia; courtesy of the Richardson Historical and Genealogical Society.

Always ranking high on the lists of best and safest places to live in the U.S., Richardson, Texas, is home to many cutting-edge electronics and telecommunications companies, as well as the University of Texas at Dallas. The city is located in both Dallas and Collin counties.

To learn more about your family history from “The Lone Star State,” search GenealogyBank’s extensive online Texas Newspaper Archives.

Here is a list of our online Richardson, Texas, newspapers currently available in the archives. Each Richardson newspaper title contains a hyperlink taking you directly to that newspaper’s search page. Click now and start searching for your ancestors out west!

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Genealogy Blog and be sure to visit Genealogy Bank to start researching your ancestry online.

Introduction: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this guest blog post, Mary writes about using family Bible records and an interesting folk art called “frakturs” to document early family history.

I was recently asked to be part of a “Brick Wall” genealogical panel, whereby researchers submit a series of questions regarding their seemingly unsolvable ancestral proofs.

Many family researchers get stuck at dead-ends due to the loss of church and civil records, and don’t know where to turn next in pursuing their family history.

So if you can’t find an official genealogical proof document, what should you do? One good solution is to look for a family record, such as notes recorded in family Bibles. Another good genealogical resource is a fraktur, a type of folk art, mostly created to commemorate births, baptisms, and marriages.

Frakturs (or Fraktur Schrift) was originally an early type of black letter printing (or calligraphy) found in Germany. Later it expanded into a delightful type of decorative pictorial or manuscript art, popularized by Pennsylvania Mennonites at Ephrata, as described in this 1955 article from GenealogyBank’s historical newspaper archives.

Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), 9 October 1955, page 38

Fraktur examples are often found in museums, and are advertised for high amounts on popular auction sites such as eBay. Numerous artifacts are in private collections, such as this framed fraktur which was given by one of my ancestors to her spouse in commemoration of their marriage.

Framed marriage fraktur

Beyond delving into family collections, how might one locate family Bibles and frakturs?

An easy method is to search military pension records. If a spouse survived her veteran husband and wished to collect a pension, proof of marriage was required.

Typically, a widow would submit a church record or a letter from a town clerk certifying a civil registration. In this example from 1840, James P. Terry of Somers, Tolland, Connecticut, certified the marriage of Stephen Chapel and Lucy Russel on 25 October 1795.

Revolutionary War Pension File W.1888, page 10

However, if a civil or court record was unavailable (perhaps lost to fire or other disaster), the surviving family member might resort to submitting original pages from the family Bible or a fraktur.

A few of these proof-of-marriage document submissions were returned to the families—but many were not, and numerous examples still exist within the National Archives. Most are digitized (generally in black and white) within pension files, such as this one for Revolutionary War soldier John Tomlin and his wife Jane Chamblin.

Fraktur commemorating the births and marriage of John Tomlin and Jane Chamblin. Revolutionary War Pension File W.6302, page 18.

As descendants find their ancestors’ frakturs, they are often posted on websites. You can find these posted frakturs using my “visual” method.

How to Find Your Family’s Fraktur

1)      Open your favorite search engine (mine is Google).

2)      Search for “fraktur” or “Bible” followed by a keyword such as a surname, or a phrase such as “Revolutionary War.”

3)      Click on the “Images” tab at the top of the resulting search results page—and voilà: pages and pages of images of frakturs appear. Some will be links to books and references, but most will direct you to digitized images. (Note: if using Google Chrome, you can explore additional searching options under the “More” or “Search Tools” options.)

4)      Bookmark the images you are interested in for later reference, or add them to a Pinterest.com board. Pinterest is a “content sharing service that allows members to ‘pin’ images, videos and other objects to their pinboard.”

Google Images search results for “fraktur” and the surname “Tomlin”:

screenshot of Google Images search results for “fraktur” and the surname “Tomlin”

Search results for family “Bible records”:

screenshot of Google Images search results for “Bible records”

You can search Pinterest for genealogy links, such as GenealogyBank’s Pinterest boards at

http://pinterest.com/genealogybank/, or my recently established Frakturs and Family Bible Records Pinterest board at http://pinterest.com/compmary/frakturs-and-family-bible-records/.

For more information on frakturs, visit the Ephrata Cloister website.

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Genealogy Blog and be sure to visit Genealogy Bank to start researching your ancestry online.

We are all grateful for our mothers—but Tony Cavallo of Lawrenceville, Georgia, has been especially grateful for his mom, Mrs. Angela Cavallo.

Springfield Union (Springfield, Massachusetts), 14 April 1982, page 25

Friday 11 April 1982 was a day like any other. Tony Cavallo was in the driveway fixing his 1964 Chevy Impala. Suddenly the jack collapsed and he was knocked unconscious, pinned under the car.

His mother came to the rescue with superhuman strength: with a prayer in her heart she reached down and lifted the car while the neighbor boy, Johnny Edwards, ran calling for help. “I was kicking him, saying ‘Get out, get out,’” while waiting for help to arrive, she said in an interview. Quickly the neighbors rushed to help and pulled Tony to safety.

Wow—with her phenomenal supermom strength she picked up the car and kept it off her son until help arrived. Now that’s the power of a mom’s love!

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Genealogy Blog and be sure to visit Genealogy Bank to start researching your ancestry online.

Chillicothe, Ohio, was the state’s first capital—from 1803-1810—and then it became Ohio’s third capital from1812-1816. GenealogyBank has that early period of “The Buckeye State’s” history covered with four Chillicothe newspapers from 1801 to 1839.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Wait— Chillicothe was Ohio’s first and third capital?

Why did the capital of Ohio change so much?

In the 1800s Ohio’s politicians could not agree on where the capital of the state should be located. It alternated between Chillicothe and Zanesville, and finally in 1812 the state’s politicians settled upon a compromise and chose Columbus as Ohio’s new capital.

However, there was a problem. The city of Columbus did not yet exist—it was simply a heavily-forested area in the center of the state. But where there is a will, there is a way—and the city born of compromise was organized, populated and became the established capital city of Ohio that we know today.

Read about life in Chillicothe, Ohio’s first capital city—and find the obituaries and articles about your ancestors, as well as news stories about the political infighting of that day, in GenealogyBank’s Ohio Newspaper Archives.

You can search all four of GenealogyBank’s Chillicothe, Ohio newspapers on one search page.

Or, you can search each newspaper for genealogy records independently. The titles in the below list are active links; click on any one to take you directly to that specific newspaper’s page where you can search for articles about your ancestry by surname, dates and more.

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Genealogy Blog and be sure to visit Genealogy Bank to start researching your ancestry online.

I love it. GenealogyBank is always growing, adding more obituaries online every day. Here are some examples of the content we will be adding to our Recent Newspaper Obituaries archive in the next few weeks.

This obituary preview list showcases new content from eight U.S. states: Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. And there’s always more coming online in the archives. Stay tuned!

South Florida Times (Ft. Lauderdale, FL)

• Obituaries:  12/31/2010 – Current

Mountain Advocate (Barbourville, KY)

• Obituaries:  09/13/2012 – Current

Herald (Chicopee, MA)

• Obituaries:  03/13/2007 – Current

Reminder (East Longmeadow, MA)

• Obituaries:  03/13/2007 – Current

Springfield Reminder (Springfield, MA)

• Obituaries:  03/13/2007 – Current

Grand Island Independent (Grand Island, NE)

• Death Notices:  01/02/2007 – Current

Omaha World-Herald (Omaha, NE)

• Death Notices:  09/04/2005 – Current

Adirondack Journal (Warrensburg, NY)

• Death Notices:  04/10/2012 – Current

Burgh (Plattsburgh, NY)

• Death Notices:  04/10/2012 – Current

Denpubs.com (Elizabethtown, NY)

• Death Notices:  04/10/2012 – Current

News Enterprise (North Creek, NY)

• Death Notices:  04/10/2012 – Current

North Countryman (Altona, NY)

• Death Notices:  04/10/2012 – Current

Times of Ti (Ticonderoga, NY)

• Death Notices:  04/10/2012 – Current

Valley News (Elizabethtown, NY)

• Death Notices:  04/10/2012 – Current

News & Observer – Blogs (Raleigh, NC)

• Obituaries:  12/07/2009 – Current

Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise (Bartlesville, OK)

• Death Notices:  02/10/2009 – Current

Murfreesboro Vision (Nashville, TN)

• Obituaries:  01/15/2009 – Current

Nashville Pride (Nashville, TN)

• Obituaries:  01/02/2009 – Current

Get more great genealogy tips and tools at - GenealogyBank Genealogy Blog and be sure to visit Genealogy Bank to start researching your ancestry online.