Sukey, I Never Knew You

This obituary caught my eye for several reasons. First is the header, with its poem and graphic. “The Knell.” Not “Deaths” or “Died” – which are very common headers for obituary notices even today – but instead “The Knell,” as in death knell. Crisp. An excellent choice of words that immediately tells us this... (Read More)

How to Search Graduation Announcements in Newspapers

Introduction: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this blog article, Mary shows how graduation announcements in old newspapers are a good resource for your family history research. It’s that time of year, when graduation ceremonies abound – but I’d wager to say that few genealogists have... (Read More)

Wow! 4-Page Obituary for William Bullock Clark

I was looking for the obituary of William Bullock Clark (1860-1917), a geology professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Looking in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives, I quickly found multiple obituaries for him. For example, there is this obituary from the Sun (Baltimore, Maryland). Great obituary. It includes the basic genealogical facts: his... (Read More)