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Local News
The Innisfail, Alberta Province in the 1920s is interesting because it is virtally all local news in the form of these community columns. Presumable the editors knew that their residents could obtain information about the Kaiser, the Czarina and the goingd-on in Ottawa from some other paper, and that their function was to provide material about the neighbourhood. Much of the news is like this:



Both of the above items provide information about where a family member lived away from the home location. Which of Mrs. Pennington’s daughters lived at Carstairs might require some research. The fact that Mrs. Hanson could be away from home for the whole winter also provokes some questions. Did she bring the children with her? Was her husband working away, on board ship or lumbering? Her father’s name is given in one of those pesky abbreviations; it perhaps stands for Christian, but may be something else.

When you read even the simplest piece of news involving a family member in a newspaper, ask yourself:

Does this tell me more than the obvious? Does it raise other useful questions? The social column noted particular events such as club meetings, teas or luncheons, dinners, illnesses, and people’s movements visiting from out of town or going elsewhere. One aspect completely forgotten now is ‘who poured’. One way of bestowing a small mark of favour at an event was to ask a woman to pour the tea. Since coffee was also served, this meant two favours, and for a long event, the pourers might work in shifts.



The tea was a late-afternoon entertainment, requiring less food than having people in for a meal, and enabling the hostess to invite more people as well. Coffee as well as tea might be served, along with tiny sandwiches or, more likely, squares, cookies and cake. It grew out of the English afternoon tea, but was considerably less formal in most instances in rural Canada. It was a common way to have a group of people to meet a visitor.



Celebrations—birthdays, wedding anniversaries, retirements—might be marked by parties which are reported in the newspaper. All of these are interesting to genealogists, but the wedding anniversary can be especially helpful if it is found and no marriage record has been located.



This notice appeared prominently on page one.

The club notices can provide interesting details if we already know that our relatives belonged to a particular organization, but if we did not know it, then the club name opens a new avenue of research.


 * Mrs. Chas. Hall went to Calgary this week to attend the Rebekah Assembly, as representative of Coronation Rebekah Lodge no. 16. (The Province, Innisfail, 15 February 1924)

Since Mrs. Hall was of some importance in the Rebekahs (otherwise, she wouldn’t be representing them at a provincial assembly), there will be information about her in their records. If there is uncertainty about Mrs. Hall’s own name, a directory, a later voters’ list, a cemetery listing or other record might supply it.

Detailed reports of some club meetings may appear, especially in the local community news. It may be that the club in question played an important role in the community, as so many Women’s Institute chapters did, or it may simply be that the reporter belonged to the club and had an interest in its affairs. During the 1950s and 1960s, theBowmanville Statesman’s Long Sault column contained regular reports of the meetings of Club 50, a local social group. From a collection of these, a history of Long Sault could probably be written, and certainly if a researcher had a relation in Club 50, there would be plenty of detail for their biography to be gleaned.

Here is an excerpt from the Women’s Institute meeting reported by the Manyberries correspondent of the


 * Medicine Hat News


 * …best of all, two more members, Mrs. Strand and Mrs. Wieland answered roll call by turning in five dollars each which they had earned during the year for the W.I. funds.

The members then stood and sang “Ole Olsen” and enacted the jumping in this song for exercises.

''The names of all present and absent members were put in a hat and names drawn for a cup presented by the constituency convenor, Mrs. Gosselin. Mrs. Ethel Webster was the successful one and although not able to be present due to having threshers at her place, the pretty cup will be sent to her. (21 September 1935)''

Later researchers will find it frustrating that the correspondent has not given full names, falling back on that familiar tone mentioned earlier. However, we learn that Mrs. Strand and Mrs. Wieland were particularly industrious (what had they done to earn the five dollars?) and that Mrs. Webster had the threshers in. Threshing was a time of hard work for the women as well as the men, preparing mountains of food for a crowd of hungry workers three times a day. The image of a group of staid W.I. members jumping and singing would make any genealogist happy, too.

Accounts of visits, paid or received, were the bread-and-butter of social columns.


 * Mr. Larry Smith returned on Saturday from Ottawa, where he has been spending a few days with his sister, Mrs. Elliott. (Collingwood Bulletin, 10 March 1927)


 * Mrs. Christianson, a sister of John Franks, Kimball, who has been spending a few weeks visit in Canada, returned to her home in Utah last week. (Alberta Star, 17 September 1909)


 * Mr. Charles Blanchard was among the out-of-town people who attended the funeral of the late William Hardill, of Peterborough. (Oshawa Daily Reformer, 7 January 1927)


 * Mr. A. McNair, who has been on a trip up to Lake Superior for his health, has returned home again greatly improved in health. (St. Mary’s Argus, 29 September 1881)

The question to ask if a familiar name is found in this kind of entry is


 * Are there connections I should know about here?

The sisters in the first two items are obvious connections. Blanchard may only have been a friend of Hardill, but there may also be a family connection. What was wrong with Mr. McNair? Among the items about people leaving and arriving will be those for students going away to school.


 * William Brown, John Roger and William Good will soon leave to qualify themselves better in the profession of teacher. The first two go to the Model School, the last to the Normal. (St. Mary’s Argus, 1 September 1881)

This item poses a difficulty. What are the Model and Normal Schools and where are they? These were two names for teacher-training colleges.

There were several Normal Schools in Ontario, the nearest to St. Mary’s being in Stratford. A researcher wanting to follow one of these boys would have to use provincial records to determine first what these schools were, if they did not know, then where they were located in 1881.

The next step would be to ask if the records for the school in question were available. All these queries could be made at the provincial archives.

This item is a good example of a term so familiar to the newspaper’s readers it could be given in a truncated form (‘the Normal’) without anyone wondering what it meant, except the modern reader.

Even more useful for tracing wandering relations is the notice which records where they have gone to work, or simply that they have moved away.


 * Miss Annie Sled left on Friday for Nipissing Junction where she has accepted a position as teacher on the public school staff. (Nottawa News in the Collingwood Bulletin, 24 March 1927)


 * Miss V. E. Jenson left on Friday last for Alhambra, where she will resume her duties as school teacher on Monday the 10th inst. (The Province Innisfail, 22 February 1924)


 * The family of Mr. Noel Green have removed to Georgetown, and the family of Mr. Wm. McNeil have left for London. (Mitchell column in St. Mary’s Argus, 29 September 1881) 

This sort of notice is good if all the information you have is ‘he went West.’ Often the news item will specify exactly where, or there may be notices of many people from a certain town all going to the same place in the West. It would be worth investigating if your lost relative went there too, as people tended to follow their neighbours when migrating. As the editor of theSt. Mary’s Argus noted in 1881, “People are leaving North Easthope weekly for Manitoba,” in the same column that he reported a group of sixteen people had gone there from Listowel.


 * Mr. B. Colter departed last week for Portage La Prairie, where he intends to settle for the remainder of his days. (Stratford column in St. Mary’s Argus, 29 September 1881)


 * John Campbell, son of Peter Campbell of Logan, has gone to South Africa. (St. Mary’s Argus, 6 October 1881)

If the migrants were given a send-off by their neighbours, the newspaper account can be transferred word-for-word to the family history:


 * It is regretted by everyone in Winnifred and district that we are losing Mr. and Mrs. Ross Beath and family. They are held in high respect by everyone and were always so ready and doubly willing to share in all the doings of Winnifred, especially in church work. Best wishes possible go with them in their new home. Mr. Beath bought a farm two miles from Battle Lake post office. Their new occupation will be dairy farmers, selling milk, butter and cheese—for a change from wheat farming in this locality, where we are without moisture for a great length of time. (Winnifred column ‘from our own correspondent’,Medicine Hat News, 11 October 1935)

An advantage of this item is that it answers one of the great genealogical questions: why did they move? Here, the Beaths were driven from wheat farming by the droughts of the 1930s, moving north to try dairying.

You may know that a relative went West, then returned. Determining the dates of the migration for his biography may be difficult, but both departure and return may be noted in the social column.

Mr. George Roy of Mitchell has just returned from a visit to Manitoba, and has not fallen in love with the country. (St. Mary’s Argus, 1 September 1881')

A good possibility for finding migrants from an area is when news of them appears in the social column, either because they have come visiting, or someone has gone to visit them, or simply because their news is being reported to their friends at home.


 * Mr. George Rice, formerly of Fullarton Corners, had all his buildings and furniture destroyed in the Michigan fires. (St. Mary’s Argus, 29 September 1881)

The unfortunate thing about this item is that it doesn’t specify where George lived in Michigan. However, elsewhere in the issue is a news item about the fires, which were extensive and warranted government intervention to compensate those with losses, so it would be an easy matter to use a larger newspaper, especially one from Detroit, to determine exactly where the fires had happened, narrowing it down to a few counties. From there, directories or census indexes would find where George lived.

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