Hello, I'm posting this to ask for some help or advise. When a paper such as the SF Examiner says [Boston Papers Please Copy] in 1880, how long does it take for the other papers to get the info? I have my ggm dying on April 9, 1880 and it had said [Boston Papers Please Copy] along with her obit. I had the Boston Library do the look up and they searched to April 20th. To me that doesn't seem long enough. If anyone has had any experience in this could you write me. I'm not sure how the newspapers got the message. Would it be via train? I'd love some feed back because this maybe my only link. Thanks, Cathie

Cathie, The telegraph had connected east and west for nearly decades by the time your ggm died in 1880, and newspapers were primary users of the telegraph services. You can read more about this at http://www.nyu.edu/classes/stephens/Collier's%20page.htm . But my question is: If you locate the same item in the Boston paper, what will you know that you didn't already know from her obituary (which I assume was printed in California)? The Schafers <[email protected]> wrote: I have my ggm dying on April 9, 1880 and it had said [Boston Papers Please Copy] along with her obit. I had the Boston Library do the look up and they searched to April 20th. To me that doesn't seem long enough. If anyone has had any experience in this could you write me. I'm not sure how the newspapers got the message. Would it be via train? I'd love some feed back because this maybe my only link. ========================== Mary Thiele Fobian Genealogical & Historical Research Pacific Grove, California

There was no Reuters, AP or UPI during this era. It's my understanding that newspapers were widely distributed. This is how news of one section of the country was disseminated to another section. I'm not aware whether or not there was any formal distribution network or method. The "Please Copy" was a standard way of alerting a paper that an item was of local interest. So when the item might be printed depended on several variables: how long it might take for a newspaper to reach Boston, whether it was noticed or not, and whether a Boston paper found it worthy of printing. The Schafers <[email protected]> wrote: Hello, I'm posting this to ask for some help or advise. When a paper such as the SF Examiner says [Boston Papers Please Copy] in 1880, how long does it take for the other papers to get the info? I have my ggm dying on April 9, 1880 and it had said [Boston Papers Please Copy] along with her obit. I had the Boston Library do the look up and they searched to April 20th. To me that doesn't seem long enough. If anyone has had any experience in this could you write me. I'm not sure how the newspapers got the message. Would it be via train? I'd love some feed back because this maybe my only link. Thanks, Cathie ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message