Posts in June 11, 2026

After one of my great-grandfather’s brothers died in the 1950s, it seemed like his wife just disappeared. Until I went through every newspaper reference in the local weekly newspapers for their children. There was a reference to a son (by then an adult) who was in the hospital and had been visited by his mother–with her name listed as Mrs. Newhusbandfirstname Newhusbandlastname. Relationships in these social columns are not always stated—space was at a premium in some cases and most people reading the reference already knew that relationship. Newspaper are about news after all. Sometimes it can be frustrating to find women listed this way–without their first name at all. In this case it was actually helpful as I now had the first and last name of her […]