The Kalamazoo Valley Family News Letter Vol. 2, No. 1         September 1972 Page 12

SOURCE OF THE QUARTER

Have you ever reached a point when the biggest thing in your mind was a great big question mark? When you simply didn't know what else to do when you had reached an unyielding "stonewall"?
In our summer issue we began a new feature concerning unusual sources of data which members had found helpful
in their ancestral research. We ask again - that members send in such unusual sources which they have found helpful.
The source featured in this issue is - CURRENT NEWSPAPERS

We've all done some research on "old" newspapers, or microfilms of them, but how many have written to newspapers currently circulated in areas of interest? Very often this doesn't occur to us when we reach a "deadend". Genealogical publications do a wonderful job, but they appeal primarily to people with a well developed interest in the subject. How do you appeal to the great mass of people who undoubtedly have a large amount of genealogical material in their possession, but who have no interest in the subject?

Recently, one of our members, reached a point where census and military records of one ancestor contradicted each others As a last resort a letter was written to the Bradford Era of Bradford, Pennsylvania, which was published in the "Letters to the Editor" column. Two weeks later the writer received letters from Indianapolis, Indiana, Cleveland, Ohio, and Victoria, Crown Colony of Hong Kong - all stated that they had received newspaper clippings of the letter, and that the ancestor sought was a brother of one grandmother, a brother of a great grandmother, a great uncle, and a fourth cousin. A retired police chief in Ohio had the complete family history and bible records. ALL THIS FROM ONE LITTLE LETTER TO A NEWSPAPER, which didn't have a genealigical column and had no interest in this field what-so-ever. None of these people answering had any interest in family history either.

In such letters one subject at a time should be considered in a word don't ask three hundred questions at once! If you confine your letter to one person or family, most people will either take the time to answer, or forward a clipping to someone they know who is connected with the person or family sought.
As a general rule the larger the newspaper is, the less valuable such queries are. It is an unfortunate fact that the large dailys are not read as closely as the smaller dailys and weeklys. Also, the people of the larger cities are less interested in their fellow man. Thus to be successful in such letters - direct them to a smaller newspaper if at all possible. It would be wise to actually subscribe to such a newspaper, and if you're used to a large daily, you're in for a surprise, and some oddly enough good reading. The following newspapers are presently published in ALLEGAN COUNTY-

        ALLEGAN COUNTY NEWS & GAZETTE      ALLEGAN COUNTY PHOTO-JOURNAL         WAYLAND GLOBE
         ALLEGAN, MICHIGAN 49010                       ALLEGAN, MICHIGAN 49010                           WAYLAND, MICHIGAN 49348

     COMMERCIAL RECORD                           PLAINWELL ENTERPRISE                                    OTSEGO UNION
       SAUGATUCK, MICHIGAN                         PLAINWELL , MICHIGAN                                      OTSEGO, MICHIGAN
                  4 9 4 5 3                                                     49080                                                                          49078

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