Newpapers! Obituaries! Read all about it!!

Newspapers are great for reverse genealogy or finding living relatives, and after my trip to the Forensic Genealogy Institute (where I learned more about the application of genetic genealogy results) last week, it seems appropriate to talk about the newspapers that are available here in Rhode Island.

Obituaries have great information that can be used to track down living relatives, but also for finding out more about ancestors, such as finding funeral home and cemeteries. Military service and employment may be mentioned, leading to more sources to fill out the lives of our ancestors and families.

In Rhode Island, the best place to find newspapers is at the RI Historical Society Library. (http://www.rihs.org/) They have almost continuous collections of every newspaper published in RI. The biggest and longest running is the Providence Journal and while most recent obituaries appear in this paper, there are smaller more regional papers that are worth a look, too. Each town usually has it's own local paper, and if you can't find a death reported in the ProJo, the next step is to look for the local paper. Most local papers can be found at RIHSL or at the local public library. In fact, when the historical society was closed for a year, I trucked around the state to find newspapers in the local libraries.

 Pawtuxet Valley Daily Times, “Michele Lautieri, Natick, Dead at 59; Funeral on Tuesday” West Warwick, Rhode Island, Saturday Dec. 6, 1941, pg 6. Rhode Island Historical Society Library microfilm  “Pawtuxet Valley Daily Times, July thru Dec. 1941”.

 
And it's not just about finding obituaries. There can also be interesting stories about more prominent (or naughty!) ancestors. Here's an article related to the one above:

Pawtuxet Valley Daily Times, "Strikers Storm Natick Mill" West Warwick, RI, 1 Feb 1922, pg 1.

The man arrested who was indirectly responsible for starting the riot is the same man, Michele Lautieri, my great-grandfather, as the one in the obituary.

There are also retrospectives in some of the papers such as "25 years ago today" and "50 years ago today" and the smaller newspapers may mark significant anniversary celebrations of local people.

They may also have pictures that you can use to get a better idea of what the neighborhood was like, or what the effect of a significant world or local event had in an area. The Natick Mill fire in 1941 in West Warwick, RI, was a significant local event that had an enormous economic impact, forcing mill workers to find other jobs. Michele, who died later in 1941, had found work at the Anthony Mill after the fire as mentioned in the obituary. It was also significant to my family research, since oral family history tells of how Michele Lautieri was taken away in the night to be questioned by the police after the fire. (A rabble-rouser, sort of, he was under suspicion for arson, based on being an activist during the 1920's mill strikes, see photo above!) All this information and more can be found in newspapers!

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