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Significant Life Events
(As found in Adair County Newspapers) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
A very useful (and often over-looked) genealogical resource can be the local newspapers in the area where your ancestors lived. The Adair Anquestors have many of the area newspapers available on microfilm for review and research in the Greenfield Library. When using these sources, be aware that these are merely pointers to life events, not the source documents that provide proof of the listed life events.
Members of the Adair Anquestors have been going though some of these newspaper microfilms and creating an index of some of these significant life events. The listings on this web site are merely a guide to where the newspaper announcements can be found. It is up to the individual researcher to use these pointers to guide their research into locating the appropriate source documents that provide proof of the facts.
Birth announcements provide the parent's names, often the child's name and date of birth, sometimes the mother's maiden name and names of other relatives.
Marriage announcements usually provide full names of both bride and groom, often their wedding date and location, the names of their parents, and sometimes names of other relatives.
Divorce announcements usually provide only the couple's names, but sometimes names of children are listed.
Anniversary announcements provide the married couple's names, often a brief biography of their married life, and sometimes names of relatives who celebrated the anniversary with them.
Obituaries usually include the decedent's biography (sometimes quite extensive). Death announcements and funeral notices usually provide more limited information. Probate announcements can sometimes provide family member information.
Family reunion announcements often provide lists of attendees, sometimes with family relationships denoted.
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One of the more frustrating aspects of genealogical research is the tracing of female ancestors, particularly the difficulty in finding a wife's maiden surname and her ancestors.
Most newspapers have "society news" sections (basically gossip about the comings and goings of people in the area). In heavily populated areas, these sections may be primarily restricted to the socially prominent. But in rural areas, these pages often include many of the local families and may contain items of significant genealogical interest that can provide pointers to unknown family members. Some rural area newspapers, such as those in Adair County, have hundreds of these little "news" items.
For example, an item such as "Mrs. Hugh Smith visited her brother Mr. Jack Jones" could be a good indicator that Mrs. Smith's maiden name was Jones. Or, an item such as "Mr. & Mrs. Hugh Smith visited with the latter's mother Mrs. Jim Johnson" could reveal an unknown ancestor's name (keep in mind that Mrs. Smith's maiden name may not be Johnson, as Mrs. Johnson could have remarried since the birth of her daughter).
Please, visit the Greenfield Library and use these newspaper resources which the Anquestors have provided for your research. I can personally testify that even the review of only a few year's worth of the newspapers on these microfilms has provided several new avenues of research for my own family history and the location of a number of previously unknown relatives.
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Note: Some of the events shown in these listings include a "Location". This is an indication that the referenced event occurred outside of Adair County. This information is included to direct your research for original source documentation to the proper locality (for example, birth, marriage, or death records are recorded in the county or state where the event occurred). Also, keep in mind that the cities of Adair, Casey, and Stuart are all partly in Adair County and partly in Guthrie County, and events listed from those newspapers may have occurred in either county.
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