Posts in February 25, 2025

When you have finished analyzing the materials in a court case file, make note of the dates of any court action. Then search local newspapers for possible mention of the case. The court record may only give part of the story. What is in the newspaper may be unsubstantiated, but it may give you a different perspective than what was in the court record. It’s always worth remembering that manual searches of digitized newspapers are sometimes necessary and that not every newspaper that could contain genealogical information relevant to your research problem has been digitized. Most US newspapers have been microfilmed (but not all), but not all microfilm has been digitized. Don’t limit your newspaper searches to just those items that are online.