Although I have used newspaper archives in the past during genealogy research, I have just realized how IMPORTANT these archives really are, particularly when trying to trace living relatives. Recently, while perusing these old newspapers from the 19th century, I came across a couple of obituaries, which gave me so much valuable information on the people I was trying to find. The article gave me names of chief mourners (family members including their ‘married’ name, children), where they were from, and also the cemetery. In some of these cases, it practically gave a biography on the deceased, which helped enormously in confirming that I had indeed found the correct family and their connections. The newspaper archives also served to confirm business details for some of these people, including exactly where their place of business was, how long they were there, and other very interesting facts. This also builds up a social history of our ancestors and gives us an insight into exactly how they lived and worked. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of checking out these newspaper sources during your genealogy research, it might just help you to get over that “brick wall” we all face at one time or another. For more useful genealogy tips, check out my website at www.intothepast.co