A Fun Coincidence
In October, I asked about their most memorable Halloween or costume. My father-in-law shared about the first costume he made entirely by himself. He mentioned that he had won an award for his town of Three Rivers, Michigan for his creative costume and a photo of him in his costume was in the newspaper. As a family historian, I just had to look for this newspaper photo! Searching through my subscription services for newspapers.com and free Library of Congress didn't net a digitized version of the Three Rivers Commercial. My search took me to the Three Rivers Public Library website and a call to the library. I asked if they could share their collection in some digital way, they couldn't, but they offered their research services to look for it. I took the bait and just over a week later, I had what I wanted and MORE!!
Since I didn't know the exact year for the Halloween he was referring to, I had them search the newspaper for the week before and after Halloween for about an 8 year span. I asked them to send me anything they found about Bill or his parents during this time. They found the newspaper photo of Bill in his horse costume in 1944.
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| Three Rivers Commercial, Nov. 1, 1944 |
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| Three Rivers Commercial, October 24, 1939 |
What I didn't expect was the second photo! At first, I couldn't believe it. Why did they send me a photo of Ruth Bowker (his eventual wife) at her 6th birthday party? I didn't tell them that she was his wife or that she lived in Three Rivers. Well, Billy was at her party, so while the library had no idea who Ruth was, they were searching for Bill and found him! How lucky was I that Ruth's birthday fell within 2 weeks of Halloween?! And that they lived in a small town that covered little girls' birthday parties. (It probably helped that her father was a pastor in a local church.)
What Did I Learn?
Don't ever limit my search, because you can find unexpected treasures when you cast a wide net and search far and wide! And I definitely needed to go myself to the Three Rivers Public Library and search the Three Rivers Commercial newspaper myself!The Practice Run
We spent Christmas with my in-laws, which is close to Three Rivers, so I wanted to go to the library and start searching for myself. My husband's family spent four generations in Three Rivers, Michigan, so there is much to investigate. I only had 1.5 hours to spend at the library, but it was a start to allow me to practice in person research and more importantly, document my search so that I can pick up where I left off when I return again. There were numerous articles I found, but I learned something else:
- When you have limited time, focus on the dates of "big events" in a life, like births, deaths, and high school graduations!
I have included here the high school graduation (and end of the school year announcement) for my husband's great-grandmother, Mary Ann (Mattie) Pealer Breyfogle in June 1889 because it's a fun reminder of how the newspaper in a small town was more than just reporting the news:
And the most impressive find was impressive only because of the man it was written about. The obituary for my husband's great-great-grandfather, Russel Ralph Pealer was on the front page with his photo in the Three Rivers paper The Daily Commercial March 7, 1919 issue. Definitely a man to be admired.
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| Russel Ralph Pealer, The Daily Commercial, March 7, 1919 |
If you would like to read the entire obituary, please click here.
My journey is about to begin and I think the practice run was a success!
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