I received a box of "goodies" from a friend today, consisting of many, many old newspaper items that she has come across in her research, along with vitals from the internet.    It will be such fun to go curl up by the wood stove and read thru them after supper tonight.

I think of all the records on the internet I treasure the old papers the most.   And she has access to different ones than I do.   Old papers are interesting reading and there was nothing "alledged" in the articles.   Either you did something or you didn't.  They spoke honestly and told the whole story, in some cases being very graphic in a murder account or some other horrible accident.   But you didn't have to read between the lines to know that they were saying.   It was all there.  Honesty!   And of course, when they began to have correspondents from local areas then lots of news came in that the paper would not have even looked for.   In fact, that is where I have found a lot of my deaths/obits in the old papers.   Some weddings were written up and others were just a notice.  Births were not really put in the papers until 1880's and up, and then not steady.  Even in the 1900's in which I am working now, the births are mostly in the correspondents columns.   I love the way they will tell of a birth.   Something like "a stranger came to visit this family and they decided to let him stay."    And other funny ways of announcing a birth.   Not often that they would tell the child's name, although it did happen.   Mostly they loved to put in the weight of the baby.  And they had BIG babies. Ten and 11 pounds was not uncommon and have even seen 12.

Speaking of a babies weight.   Last night I found an interesting story in the May 6, 1909 paper about a couple being the grandparents of the "littlest girl in the world."  The little one was born April 6, 1909 and it was thought because of her diminutive size she could not live long, but little Flora has thrived wonderfully.  She now weighs one pound 14 ounces.  She takes nourishment in the form of modified milk--one drop at a time from the tip of a dropper.

I would love to know if the little one did thrive and grow up.   Maybe there will be something in a later paper.  

Have a co-worker who chuckles every time he sees in the old paper about someone who is very, very sick and not expected to live.     He says, how would you like to see that in the paper about yourself?   But then again, being very sick, they would probably not be reading the paper.   But we have to remember that newspapers were the way people kept up with others in the community.  They truly were full of news, local and regional and then from afar.

Hope you like these postings.   Trying to write things of interest.   If you like them let me know.