Sometimes we can be tempted to ignore family reunion announcements in newspapers because the information they contains is often repetitive or we think we know “everything” about the family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reunions announcements that appear annually may be repetitive but they may be clues in those lists of relatives. A 1938 family reunion announcement indicated that a relative and his wife attended a family reunion, styling them as “Mr. and Mrs. John Smith and Susan.” The reference (when compared to the rest of the writeup) seems to suggest that Susan is their child. The couple had been married for a slightly over a year at the time. Mr. John Smith is my relative. I know little of Mrs. Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve never heard of Susan. Is she a relative of Mrs. John Smith of whom I am unaware? She is not listed with the family in the 1940 census. Is she a child who died by the 1940 census enumeration and one who was never discussed by the family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For privacy reasons, birth records during the time period are difficult to obtain. I have some more work to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All because of a reference in a reunion announcement that I thought I didn’t need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n