Think newspapers are only good for obituaries? Think again! Our latest episode from the Ancestors series is proof positive that newspapers are worth more than just a cursory glance. Here's the tease from the Ancestors website:
Lori Hammell-Davis's grandfather was a special man. He was reserved and carried himself with a sense of class. She always wondered about his past and suspected he grew up differently than she had in her middle class neighborhood, but she sensed she wasn't supposed to ask him any questions.
After his death, she felt it was safe to ask her grandmother about his past. Her grandmother said that she thought his family had been well to do and that his father had died when he was a young man. That was as much as she knew. Lori was shocked to discover that her grandmother knew so little about her husband of all those years.
The curiosity about his past lingered, and she finally decided to gather some clues. After two years of research, she finally had a breakthrough. While searching online, Lori found a connection to her grandfather's first cousin. This woman never knew her grandfather personally, but had heard many stories of his mother. Her mother told her that Lori's great-grandmother was a high society lady in San Francisco, but thought she may have been in some trouble with the law.
Now Lori's interest was soaring, so she decided to do a newspaper search to see if she could learn more. She went to the library and was guided to newspaper records for the San Francisco area. Looking for her great-grandmother's name, Dorothy Hammell, she came up blank, but she did find numerous listings for a Barbette Hammell. Could they be the same woman?
So what do you have lurking in your closet?
Og from Roots Television