Another Way to Kill Time
Posted by David | Filed under St. Louis, genealogy
Late Monday, while working on a checklist of online resources to be used in conjunction with a new printed checklist I’ll put to use soon, I browsed the databases available on the local library’s web site. My favorites are America’s Obituaries & Death Notices and HeritageQuest Online, but a new listing caught my eye: St Louis Post-Dispatch (1874-1922) (ProQuest Historical Newspapers). Like John, who wrote about this yesterday, I spent hours searching for different family names.
A handful of the search results were alarming; mentions of a stabbing on the levee, embezzlement charges and other crimes. Once I have time to sort through all of these articles, though, I don’t think many will end up actually being about my ancestors and collateral relatives. For instance, the articles about a “train boy” accused of embezzling $50 probably don’t refer to my ancestor of the same name who was 40 years old at the time. And the stabbing story looks like another case of the victim’s name not being all that unique.
I won’t know how well this database works until I spend more time searching for items such as obituaries that I know were published in the Post, but this definitely has potential.
