Where is that Gold?

Most of the first miners to California simply looked around and picked up the gold that they could see. And most genealogists and historians simply copy down the death and marriage notices. But there is more there than that, so what and how do you look for it? Birth notices were not often found in the early years. In the hundreds of issues of papers I've skimmed, there have only been a couple of births listed, and they were new children of the editor! Unfortunately, in a previous column of the earliest notice I've seen, in the same 'Number' as the first one I found, was the death notice of his oldest son.

So what other local news might be useful? I've seen a listing of individuals that had letters at the post office waiting to be picked up. A list of all the probate estates settled for the last year can narrow down the year of death. Organizations often printed resolutions with the names of the person who signed them. Notices of church pew auctions and temperance meetings may contain names of the participants. Town picnics and other events might include those that attended or led portions of the activity. Another great one was the County Fair! All of the winners' names, the category and their prizes would be listed.

Newspaper editors were often 'bribed' with sample goods and services that they would say nice things about in their columns. Small gifts of produce, tobacco and other goods would be left at the newspaper office in payment of the bill, or simply to show off the exceptionally large, or early, strawberry. And the editors would thank the kind people, by name, in the process.

And you don't want to skip the legal notices! Sheriff's sales on foreclosures and estate sales can give clues. Some papers printed all the transfers of land from person to person recorded at the courthouse. Notices of new partnerships, or the dissolution of old ones can be found there. Because of the legal requirement of publishing for certain periods of time, you'll quickly recognize the repeats and be able to skim through these pretty quickly. Other useful items I've seen include the printing of the town budget and everyone they paid over the past year, including persons providing fire wood and carpentry help.

No, you can't skip the advertisements! Was your ancestor a shopkeeper? A skilled craftsman? Advertising! Even a farmer with produce or grain, or perhaps excess livestock for sale might take out an ad. Your family name in print! Perhaps your ancestor posted a reward for the return of a cow that wondered off. But once you start recognizing the format of the ads, you know what ones are repeated each week. And the patent medicine ads are easy to spot, and ignore, after the first couple of chuckles.

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