Finding one obit in an old newspaper can lead to many more in the same newspaper.
It can also lead one to another newspaper from the same town.
I was working on a story about newspaper history items; “…don’t feel bad about what is happening in the Supreme Court, the USA has gone through much worse.” And I went into the Gettysburg, Penn Google News Archive collection.
While looking at the Gettysburg newspaper I saw this obit for Ida Jane so I took a screen print of it.
I then copied it and cropped it so that it would fit better in her family tree box in Ancestry dot com.
Having found this obit, I created a text file for it to help me with a tree if I was going to make one.
Not all obits that I find end up in their own trees, I sometimes just find an existing family tree for the person and notify the owners of said tree, and I send them the link to the obit.
I don’t know off hand if I will find a tree so I just follow the same steps for all my finds.
- take a screen print of it
- crop it if it is a long obit
- write up a text file for it, capturing all the info contained in the obit.
Ida Text
Ida Jane Noel
age abt. 39
born: abt. 1870
died: Oct 1909
in Penn
Ida is of Abbottstown, Penn
[Abbottstown, Adams, Pennsylvania, USA]
father: John Noel
mother:
brother: Samuel Noel
==============================
Gettysburg, Penn
Gettysburg Times – Oct 7, 1909
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HaslAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OPwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5034%2C2114360
===============================
Since I did not find an existing family tree for Ida, I created a family tree on Ancestry dot com, to hold the screen print.
I then started picking up hints for Ida’s profile page:
The hints I looked at and sometimes picked up, gave me information about the family and some of the records had death dates and death places on them.
Since I had found Ids’s obit in a Gettysburg, Penn newspaper I figured I could find the other obits in the same newspaper.
I figured wrong.
The newspaper where I found Ida’s obit only has certain dates of newspapers available. It is “The Gettysburg Times” and the collection on Google News Archive is not complete.
It has the following newspapers:
Jan 1, 1909 to Dec 31 1949; then some in Sep 1950; a few in Nov 1950; and one for Dec 29 1950; then the collection picks up once again: Jan 1, 1951 to Apr 30 2009.
So the item that I picked up for Ida maybe in this collection but the other obit dates that I was finding were not available in the Gettysburg Times collection.
I had to find another newspaper for the area and luckily this was Gettysburg, Penn and Google News Archive has many Gettysburg newspaper to pick from.
Notice that there are only two out of the Gettysburg, Penn. collection that fit my needs.
The following is a quick glance at the names, dates, relationship and newspaper where I found the obits.
(A complete list will be at end of blog post.)
I found Ida’s obit in the “Gettysburg Times” but I could not find her parents in that collection; the dates fell right in the area where the collection was missing newspaper for the dates.
Notice that Ida’s father and mother’s obits had to be found in “The Star and Sentinel” newspaper collection. Also notice that each has a long version and a cropped version. The cropped version fits better in the profile box of the Ancestry dot com tree and is easier to read because the text is larger.
Ida Jane Noel
age abt. 39
born: abt. 1870
died: Oct 1909
Gettysburg Times
(see her obit above)
===============================
///////////////
================================
Ida’s father
Samuel A Noel Sr
age 69
born: in York county
died: 10 Jan 1950
The Star and Sentinel
===============================
///////////////
===============================
Samuel’s wife, Ida’s mother
Delia E Noel
born: in Baltimore, Maryland
died: Mar 1945
The Star and Sentinel
===============================
///////////////
===============================
son of Samuel and Delis, Ida’s brother
Samuel A Noel Jr
age 45
born:13 Dec 1910
died: 30 Aug 1956
Gettysburg Times
===============================
///////////////
===============================
daughter of Samuel Sr and Delia, Ida’s sister
Margaret Virginia (Noel) Swisher
age 91
born Abt. 1901
died: 27 May 1992
Gettysburg Times
===============================
///////////////
===============================
husband of Margaret V (Noel) Swisher, Ida’s brother-in-law
Ellis A Swisher
age 66
born: Abt 1900
died: Mar 1966
Gettysburg Times
===============================
///////////////
===============================
So you see, by finding Ida’s one (1) obit
I was able to find five (5) other obits for the family and could probably find many more, if I spent the time looking.
The links for the obits will be at the end of the blog post so feel free to look at those newspapers.
I hope this gives you a better idea of what can be found in the Google News Archive collection and that you now know, if you can’t find it in one newspaper, you might be able to find it in a different newspaper; you just have to look for it.
Thank You
Jose from Clarkston, Michigan, USA
Update: I was able to find three more obits and I put them on the tree. I also put all the obits onto the memorial pages of Find-A-Grave. Here is a screen print of the Gallery as it stands on the eve of 08 Oct 2018 — 
Ida Jane Noel
age abt. 39
born: abt. 1870
died: Oct 1909
Penn
==============================
Gettysburg, Penn
Gettysburg Times – Oct 7, 1909
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HaslAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OPwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5034%2C2114360
===============================
///////////////
================================
Ida’s father
Samuel A Noel
age 69
born:
in York county
died: 10 Jan 1950 Tuesday
at the Warner Hosptal in Gettysburg, Penn
================================
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
The Star and Sentinel – Jan 14, 1950
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=To8lAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yfIFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1113%2C5068052
===============================
///////////////
===============================
Samuel’s wife
Delia E Noel
born:
in Baltimore, Maryland
died: Mar 1945
================================
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
The Star and Sentinel – Mar 17, 1945
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SI0lAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vfIFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2934%2C4293179
===============================
///////////////
===============================
son of Samuel and Delis
Samuel A Noel
age 45
born:13 Dec 1910
in Adams county, Penn
died: 30 Aug 1956
at home of heart attack
==================================
Gettysburg, Penn
Gettysburg Times – Aug 30, 1956
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9EgmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Qv8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1383%2C2339960
===============================
///////////////
===============================
daughter of Samuel Sr and Delia
Margaret Virginia (Noel) Swisher
age 91
born Abt. 1901
in Carroll county, Maryland
died: 27 May 1992
at Hanover Gen. Hospital
=========================
Gettysburg, Adams, Penn
Gettysburg Times – May 28, 1992
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=j-AlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OP0FAAAAIBAJ&pg=6355%2C2871459
===============================
///////////////
===============================
husband of Margaret V (Noel) Swisher
Ellis A Swisher
age 66
born: Abt 1900
died: Mar 1966 Tuesday
at home
================================
Gettysburg, Adams, Penn
Gettysburg Times – Mar 9, 1966
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hDomAAAAIBAJ&sjid=t_4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1275%2C4604470
===========================
Lester W Swisher
age 53
born: Abt. 1914
died: Mar 1967 Wednesday
at Hanover Gen Hospital
father: R. Calvin Swisher
mother: Minnie (Miller) Swisher
wife: Mary Elizabeth (Hershey) Swisher
================================
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg Times – Mar 3, 1967
See down from this link:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vkkmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SP8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1274%2C4869962
=================================
Edna I Swisher Null
age 82
born: 25 Mar 1915
in Adams county
died: Mar 1997 Sunday
at daughters home
Jacqueline and Elwood Tiffany – Doughlassville
[Douglassville, Berks, Pennsylvania, USA]
with whom she resided
father: Calvin Swisher (late)
mother: Minnie Miller Swisher
husband: [Paul]
================================
Gettysburg, Adams, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg Times – Apr 1, 1997
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Hy4xAAAAIBAJ&sjid=COYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3665%2C10181
====================
Minnie Mae Miller Swisher
age 92
born: Abt. 1873
died: Apr 1965 Monday night
at Hanover Gen Hospital
father: Henry F Miller
mother: Caroline (Weighle) Miller
husband: R Calvin Swisher (14 Sep 1936)
=================================
Gettysburg, Adams, Pennslyvania
Gettysburg Times – Apr 20, 1965
See down from this link:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qSwmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=H_4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1030%2C858149
==================
Genealogical Collection 
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