My friends - I want to take just a few minutes of your time today to comment on the use of early newspapers in our research. As many of you who have been on this List for some time know, we do not have extant newspapers for the JP region earlier than about 1880. The UK has the best collection of early KY newspapers, in my experience. There are a few single issues here and there which go back some years earlier in the JP, but any series of newspapers - that is, for example, a run of 1 January 1880 - 31 December 1880 - for any period earlier than 1880 is virtually unknown for the JP area, which is unfortunate. However, as we see more and more early newspapers come online, we do have some opportunities, now and then, to find some tidbits connected with events in the Jackson Purchase. This is especially true in the 1907 - 1910 time frame, when the Night Riders were active in Calloway County. The events surrounding those activities often found their way into large national newspapers. But, occasionally, a "filler" item will appear in newspapers elsewhere, such as the following two examples: ~~~ From a newspaper in Norwalk, CT (25 June 1886): "Death From Hydrophobia Louisville, Ky - June 24 Miss Maude Jetton was bitten eighty days ago in Calloway County by a dog. Tuesday, she had all the symptoms of hydrophobia and died yesterday in great agony". and The Farmers Cabinet Journal (Amherst, NH) 16 July 1841 "Three Persons Drowned At Once A most lamentable and distressing occurrence took place near the mouth of Cypress Creek in the County of Calloway, Ky, a few miles the mouth of Sandy, on Wednesday, the 24th, ult. A little son of J.B.Winchester was fishing in the creek a few rods from the house on the opposite side. He is supposed to have fallen in from a log, and his mother and grandmother drowned in getting him out. On search being made, the three bodies were found within about six feet of each other, Mr. Winchester's wife holding a handful of his mother's hair." ~~~ As you can see, these pieces were printed in a newspaper and a journal based far from Calloway Co. I know that we have both Jetton and Winchester descendants on the List. While the Winchester item does not give names for the child, the wife, or the child's grandmother, it does tell us that these three people died on 24 June 1841. This may supply a date for descendants who may have the names of the three who were drowned, and it may also supply the circumstances of the deaths, which may not have been known before now, as well as the fact that the mother in question was J.B.Winchester's mother, and not the mother of his wife(which we can determine from the fact that the piece states that Winchester's wife was holding hair from "his" mother's head). These items came from the Early American Newspapers database, which is, unfortunately, at this point, still a fee based resource. However, there are several free databases, which are constantly growing, and most of these are shown on the Cyndi's List website, here: http://www.cyndislist.com/newspapr.htm Newspapers can be outstanding and fascinating resources. Finding them, and then locating items about our families, can be time consuming and frustrating at times. But, often, the rewards may make it worth the effort. -B ====================================================================