Saturday, April 2, 2011

Omar James Humphrey Sr. -- Life in Maine

My best sources for information on OJH Sr. have definitely been online newspaper archives. It amazes me how much trivia about daily life can be found in back issues of the Seattle Times -- so and so had so and so to dinner, OJH Jr. had a party for his friends, Pansy played bridge.  The Seattle Times has a fantastic, seachable database so -- for a fee! -- I was able to find over 600 mentions of OJH Sr. and family.  Needless to say, I've only managed to get through about 50 of them.  But I'm fairly confident that when I'm through, I'll have a much better sense of his life and the lives of my much-adored great-grandmother, Pansy, and Dappap and Aunt Bobbie.

What I would love to find are articles from any newspaper in Maine but so far, it's been tricky to find online databases. Ancestry.com has some but not all issues and it's seach capabilities don't seem entirely thorough. However, I did find this lovely little tidbit from the June 10, 1870 Bangor (Maine) Whig & Courier:


I'd love to find more articles like this, because what I miss when looking at things like census records is the color and flavor of their lives. It must be the American Studies major in me!

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