Ancestry Quick Tip Historical Newspapers Search Tip My surname is Boberschmidt and, as you may imagine, there are many possibilities for errors in the name. Newspapers from Edwardsville, Ill. were recently added to Ancestry.com. I usually check about once a week to see if the number of newspapers changes for my surname. Well, it did, and I found that my grandmother along with the four kids, including my father, moved to Edwardsville just after my grandfather died in 1908 from exposure to toxics at a brass foundry at age 44. (His brother died the year before at age 40-nasty things, those brass foundries!) This was a big surprise. I didn't know that they moved from St. Louis to Edwardsville and lived there for a few years. One of the papers was really great: my father got on the first grade honor roll for perfect attendance. Anyway, when I was doing my regular check for new newspapers I quickly typed in "Boberschmidt," but I had typed so quickly that the opening page was not fully loaded. What happened was that "Bober" ended up under surname and "Schmidt" under first name. Since I had already hit the search button, I let it go and planned to just go back after the search finished. Surprise, surprise! There was one entry for "Schmidt Bober" and it was one of the newspapers in Edwardsville, Ill. for the period they were there. Who was this strange person? Well, remember that newspaper columns are fairly narrow and they often use hyphens. That is what happened in this instance; the "Bober" was at the end of one line and the "Schmidt" started the next line with a hyphen after the "Bober." It turned out to be an article telling how my grandmother had just returned from a visit to brothers and sisters in St. Louis. So in trying various spelling variations, remember, in the newspapers you search, your name may have been hyphenated. Give it a try. Leo Boberschmidt P.S. There was also a time where a census taker thought the family name was Bober Schmidt and I found my grandmother indexed under the "Schmidts," so this tip could easily apply to other record types. Thanks to Leo for today's Quick Tip! If you have a tip you would like to share with researchers, you can send it to: ADNeditor@ancestry.com