Saturday, July 26, 2008

Fort Wayne - Where Everybody Knows Your Business

I'm a little unusual - this - we all know.

One of the things that amuses me, is reading the early Fort Wayne newspapers (specifically 1900-1920).

If you're not familiar with what was reported on by the newspapers in those days - well - let's just say that your business was everybodys elses business. And I'm sure this went on all over the country but it seems just a little bit different when you're reading about the families you're familiar with.

Take my own family for example. My great-grandfather, Walter G. Roy, was married to Rosina Breer and apparently, they had a very tumultuous relationship prior to her (young) death.

I was tempted to pull a couple of other examples however, I didn't want to risk offending someone who might find out here - for the first time - that one of their relatives was the talk to of the city (via a newspaper entry).

3 comments:

Colleen said...

can you find this stuff online, or are you checking microfilm at the library?

Kristina said...

Hi Colleen!

Definitely online - my membership on Ancestry.com allows me to look at a bazillion different resources including just about every "old" newspaper known to man. If you want me to do a search on a last name - email me and you know I'm happy to that for you :).

Colleen said...

I'm on ancestry too...I guess I have to poke around some more! My personal favorite is finding old census records...esp for my neighborhood...see who lived where and what they did.