Newspapers

G.I.’s at Billings Get Typing Course

joelowry1982 1940s, Lowry, Military, Newspapers

This newspaper clipping was among a collection of documents from my grandfather Chuck Lowry’s time in the Army. He is shown taking a typing class at Billings General Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana. Billings was an Army hospital where he spent nearly a year recovering from wounds sustained near Brest, France in August 1944.

Although I had the clipping, I didn’t know the newspaper or date of publication. I popped over to Newspapers.com and searched “Cleo Frazier” to see if I could get a hit. I got about 1,500. I narrowed it down to 1945 and only had to scan about 50 before I located the article in the Indianapolis News from September 5, 1945. Even with the war now over, Pfc. Charles J. Lowry is still in the Army recovering. Not only that, but I learned what he was doing on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:30 a.m. during what I can imagine was a mundane routine at the hospital.

Of interest was Miss Cleo Frazier. Through the same search, I discovered she was a teacher at a local high school volunteering her time in the hospital. In 1937, she was in China when they were invaded by Japan. She left Shanghai three days before it was bombed, speaking of her experience before a meeting of the Business and Professional Womens Club in Indianapolis.

Sources:

“G.I.’s at Billings Get Typing Course,” The Indianapolis News, 5 September 1945, pg 12, col 1; digital images, (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 21 Aug 2023), Newspapers.com.

“Miss Frazier to Speak,” The Indianapolis News, 30 September 1945, pg 10, col 1; digital images, (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 21 Aug 2023), Newspapers.com.

“Manual Teacher Kept Busy,” newspaper clipping, unknown date and newspaper; personal collection of Joe Lowry, address for personal use.

Dead or Alive? It Depends!

joelowry1982 Census Sunday, Maternal, Newspapers, Paternal

CensusInfo_1930_Mar30_GoogleNews

This notice from the Youngstown Vindicator was probably not too reassuring for anyone who may have circling the drain on April 1, 1930. While your vital signs indicated you were dead, the Federal government was willing to give you a few extra days.

As the Vindicator reported on 30 March 1930, anyone who died between April 1 and the time the census taker (more properly, the “enumerator”) arrived at the home was counted as being alive. Likewise, anyone who was born after April 1 but before the enumerator came to the home, often weeks later, was not counted. The enumerator’s instructions would have read, “Enter the name of every person whose usual place of abode on April 1, 1930, was with the family or in the dwelling place for which the enumeration is being made.” By counting everyone who was living on April 1, the Census would more accurately reflect a single day in time.

Sources:
“Census Will Count You As Alive If You Die April 1”, Youngstown [OH] Vindicator, 30 Mar 1930, page A2, col 4; digital image, (http://news.google.com : accessed 17 May 2016), Google News Archive.

Steven Ruggles, Katie Genadek, Ronald Goeken, Josiah Grover, and Matthew Sobek. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 6.0 [Machine-readable database], “1930 Census: Enumerator’s Instructions,” Minneapolis : University of Minnesota, 2015.

Newspapers.Com Is Newest Tool In My Toolkit!

joelowry1982 Connor, Groucutt, Newspapers, Obituary, Paternal, Rogan
I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog lately, but that’s because my genealogy research has been moving along at full steam and I can’t find the time to write! I recently obtained a subscription to Newspapers.com and have spent countless hours searching their vast archive of newspapers. Included in that archive are over 100 years of New Castle, Pennsylvania papers and several decades of East Liverpool, Ohio papers. As my paternal family spent many years in or around those two cities, I’m finding great articles covering births, deaths, baptisms, birthday parties and weddings. The Groucutts, in particular, were a very well written about family.
For the last two years, I maintained a subscription to GenealogyBank.com. GenealogyBank is also a newspaper archive site but had very little material for the regions of the country where my ancestors lived. In fact, in going through my saved records, I can find only two GenealogyBank articles of any use. Meanwhile, I searched for the surname ‘Groucutt’ and located almost 525 records in Pennsylvania newspapers alone. Most of those are from New Castle and almost exclusively the mentions belong to my ancestors. 

Over the next few months, I’ll try and do a regular feature with some of the newspaper articles I’ve located. Some include content that would never pass muster in today’s news. Thanks to modern journalistic standards and medical privacy laws (such as HIPAA), I doubt any legitimate newspaper would publish an article detailing a nervous breakdown of someone, let alone someone who is 14 years old as Mary Groucutt was when this article was published:

Sources:
“Rogan Groucutt Wedding, October 22”, New Castle [PA] News, 13 Oct 1913, page 3; online index and digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 24 Nov 2014), Newspaper Archives, 1700s-2000s.

“Ms. Annie Connor”, New Castle [PA] Weekly Herald, 1 Jun 1904, page 2; online index and digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 24 Nov 2014), Newspaper Archives, 1700s-2000s.

“Social News”, New Castle [PA] News, 6 Apr 1914, page 3; online index and digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 24 Nov 2014), Newspaper Archives, 1700s-2000s.