Posts in December 28, 2023

In addition to searching newspapers for names and locations, consider searching for addresses and phone numbers. For my rural ancestors, street addresses are usually not helpful. But during the time period when most people had a phone, searching for their phone number has been helpful in locating “background” details. I even got lucky and found one newspaper issue where both my paternal grandmother and my father had advertisements. You might even want to keep a list of known phone numbers for your relatives–including where you got the knowledge of the phone number. Local libraries, genealogical societies, and the like may have copies of old phone books to help you locate numbers.