Are you using newspapers to tackle your genealogy brick walls?
In this document right here, I learned a lot about John Townley but is it my ancestor? Today I'm
going to show you how newspapers helped me learn a lot about who my ancestor is and who my ancestor
is not. And that way, you can begin to utilize these periodicals to climb your family tree.
Come along and research over my shoulder. When I'm exploring newspapers for John and Effingham, I'm
looking for a number of things. The first thing I'm looking for is for any record that said that
John moved from Elizabeth to Cincinnati. If you've watched my video about keyword research about your
ancestors travels, I utilize or will utilize a lot of those keywords to see if I can pull out
an article about John moving to Cincinnati. I'm also looking for any articles that could
designate who his father was. Sometimes there's articles and newspapers where a heir, who's living
away from their parents, will have a notice in the papers that said, "Hey, John Townley,
son of Effingham Townley of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, just inherited lands. That's great,
if you can find it. I'm also doing my last search of George W Townley and Major J Townley. I have
established that they're not brothers of John. They're not close cousins of John. But if there's
any article that talks about George and Major from Elizabethtown, New Jersey, maybe they're
also going to include John, who's also from the same place in that article. I also need to check
records over in New Jersey for Effingham Townley. Is there anything that ties him to a John in
Cinncinnati? is there anything that ties him to a John that died? I am going to search for both
men in both locations. Now, this is a time when you have to search multiple databases in order to
find answer your questions. Newspapers.com, that I have been using a lot in this series and on this
channel, did not have the newspapers that served Elizabethtown, New Jersey at the
time I needed to research. So I was switched over to GenealogyBank. And I was able to find
one newspaper article that fit my parameters of Effingham Townley in Elizabethtown, New Jersey.
Not every entry in newspapers is going to give you everything you need wanted or hoped for.
But you can help build the case that your ancestors are in the place that you think
they're supposed to be. And that's the case of this clipping. Effingham died in Elizabethtown,
New Jersey, in 1828. I already knew that. But if I'm also trying to establish what date that
he died on, I have the will date. I have when it went into probate. And now, I also had this
newspaper article to help lock down that date of death. So, it is handy. It isn't a total loss.
But it wasn't the clue I was looking for. Now, in Cincinnati, there were some John Townley's
in the newspapers throughout John's life. And invariably, it's not the John I was hoping for.
So as I teased earlier, there's this John Townley. This John Townleyis actually a nephew of George
and Major Townley. He's the insurance man that was alluded to in an earlier video where it said,
"John Townley, famous insurance man, died," at the time where my fourth great grandfather died.
Yeah! The newspapers made a mistake. So be very, very careful when you're looking at newspapers.
Sometimes errors creep in. He was not the famous insurance man, my fourth great grandfather.
That is an entirely different John Townley. Boy, how I wish John A Townley was my direct
ancestor. He appears in the newspapers so much. We see the land transactions.
We see what his favorite cigar was. We see where he ate and the fact that he got sued.
Now my John Townley did appear in a few documents. In 1844 he had some letters to pick up at the post
office. Now you may think that is an insignificant entry in newspapers. But actually, it helps you
establish when and where somebody lived. Not only that, who's sending him mail? could it be family
members from some other location? I hope so. Now I had hoped that John would appear in some of
the land records and entries that were recorded in newspapers. George Townley was recorded in
newspapers about buying land through its sheriff's sale. So I had hoped John would appear in the
records as well. But I haven't found him. Now before we continue, something that I definitely
want you to pay attention to in newspapers, I want to call your attention to the show notes for
this video. I go into a lot more depth of some of the discoveries I made. And you can also find my
messy middle research notes to follow along on the discoveries I've made. Be sure to find that link
in the description. Now back to the really cool discovery. The next entry I found for
John Townley was in 1848, where he served as a juror in a court case. I could then go
research the court case to add a little more flavor when I'm writing about John Townley's
in his family history. But that just doesn't really help answer my question. So I just move
on to the next clipping. Now there was one little discovery that I thought would be
kind of fun given the current election craziness that's going on in the United States. And that
was when I discovered the party that George W Townley belonged to - he was active in the Whig
Party. Now I talked to my son. He thinks it's so funny that it's wig because he's thinking w-i-g
rather than w-h-i-g. But that party no longer exists. So it's fun to talk to about him about
the past. And the past political parties and how things have changed greatly since that time.
Now John Townley, my fourth great grandfather, his children began to show up here in the newspapers
about the 1860s. I really love all of the articles that I have found for his son Richard Townley, who
was a police officer in Cincinnati. We get a lot of beat reports. There's an article of him being
stabbed. There's articles of him going to court and against his stabber and some other situations.
It's really kind of fun the things that you can find in newspapers. It didn't help answer
my question. So you have to be very careful use that genealogy research plan to be hyper-focused
on what you're looking for. Based on the goals that I had for newspaper research, how
did things line up after my exhaustive search of Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank? Well, I did not
get the clue that definitively states that John is the son of Effingham of Elizabethtown, New Jersey.
However, the beauty of newspaper research is that sometimes you can get to know your ancestors so
well that when you're walking down the street, you can pick them out of the crowd. The other thing
that newspapers help me do is realize that John Townley does not interact socially with George
and Major Townley. But also I can see the dramatic difference in social-economic status of George and
Major and John. John was a bricklayer throughout all of his life. He's probably not going to be
showing up in a lot of newspapers unless he gets sued, gets arrested, gets drunk, or dies in some
mysterious circumstance, or makes some agrees an amazing creation in his bricklaying business.
Meanwhile, George and Major are recorded with a lot of details. Their travels. Their court
cases. They're suing, and on and on and on. I'm thankful that I went and explored newspapers.
I'm disappointed that my ancestor didn't get a lot of ink,
but I still learned a little bit more than I had originally started out with. However,
I'm glad you stuck around this far. However, in a previous video, I talked about how the Townleys
that are descended of John desperately want to establish their relationships for the famous
Colonel Richard Townley, who was a original settler of Elizabethtown, New Jersey and
was active in all the politics there. There's another reason why the Townleys want to connect
to Lord Effingham Townley. And that is from the newspaper articles that deal with the Lawrence
Townley estate. Now have you ever heard of people trying to establish their links so that they can
acquire a huge inheritance from England, and titles, and properties, and stuff?
Well, that was what was going on with the descendants of John Townley in 1845. There is
a notice put in the Newark newspaper that asks people who have the surname Townley to show up
at a meeting and bring all of your documentation - your bibles, your marriage certificates - anything
that establishes your pedigree. And bring it to this meeting because there's a large set of money
and inheritance at stake. Unfortunately, George, Major, Edward, and John Townley are all living in
Cincinnati at this time. So if there's anybody taking the family records to this meeting, it
is the relations of George and Major and Edward. The brothers, on their side of the Townley family.
And then hopefully John, the potential brother Richard, to that meeting for the Effingham line.
You would think that would be the end of it. But in the Cinncinnati newspapers from 1875 to 1888,
you're going to constantly see these newspaper articles pop up throughout that time period.
Talking about the inheritance and that individuals in Cinncinnati have established their line to the
Lawrence Townley estate. Now I'm still kind of confused at whether the 1845 and 1875 cases are
the same because now it requires me to do research into probate claims that I believe will be over in
England. Because that's where the estate has to be settled. And I don't know how to do that yet.
So if someone knows how to do that. Let me know in the comments or shoot me an email. You can find my
email on our website familyhistoryfanatics.com. What I find fascinating is, I think I found the
trigger for the family legend that says that we are tied into the Lord Effingham of England.
If I could establish it, that would be great. There would be another place that I want to put
on my list of places to visit. Cornwall, England, to see Andy's family and to take a Poldark tour.
But also to go and find my origin of the Townley line. There's still more research to do, but
I have to leave newspapers and go on to something else. So stick around for the next video that will
pop up right up here. And if you're ready for the latest video from Family History Fanatics,
check out this one right here. Man, throughout this whole video, just itch itch itch itch.