Showing posts with label Genealogy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Genealogy. Show all posts

Saturday, March 20, 2021

Who Can Use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive

Telegraph Herald Digital Archive

Thanks to a gift from the Clive W. and Mona M. Lacy Trust and a partnership with the Telegraph Herald, the Library now hosts a digital archive of the Telegraph Herald newspaper. Browse and search over fifty-seven thousand editions of the Telegraph Herald spanning almost two-hundred years. You may not even need a library card!

Who Can Use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive?

In-Person Visitors

All in-person visitors may use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive inside Carnegie-Stout Public Library. No library card is needed. Printing is 10 cents per page, and help is available at the 2nd Floor Reference Desk.

Dubuque Residents

Dubuque city residents may use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive online by clicking on Browse the Archive and then entering the full number on the back of your library card with no spaces, and your PIN, which should be the last four digits of your phone number. If these numbers do not work, or if you do not have a library card, please call us at 563-589-4225 and ask for the Cards Desk.

Iowa Residents

Other Iowa residents may be eligible for a free Open Access library card which should enable you to use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive online. For details, please call us at 563-589-4225 and ask for the Cards Desk.

Non-Residents

If you live outside of Iowa, you can purchase a non-resident card to use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive online. For costs and more details, see Get A Card, or call us at 563-589-4225 and ask for the Cards Desk.

Free, No-Card Option

Another option is to try the free Dubuque Newspapers in Google News Archive. While this option does not support keyword searches, it is very handy for browsing by date, and it does not require a library card. For tips and tricks, see How to Find Dubuque Obituaries Online.

Also, the State Historical Society of Iowa provides free access to Iowa and Dubuque newspapers in NewspaperARCHIVE.com. Go to Digital Resources and then click on "NewspaperArchives Iowa Database." At that page, use "Go to Advanced Search" to narrow searches to Dubuque.

Reference Help

If you cannot find what you are looking for, our reference librarians at yourlibrarian@carnegiestout.org may be able to provide further assistance, or call us at 563-589-4225 and ask for the Reference Desk.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Researching a Library Postcard


During the recent library haiku contest, I tried to write a poem about how Carnegie-Stout Public Library was here before any of us were born and would likely still be around after all of us have passed away, but I couldn't figure out how to say that within the required number of syllables.

Since then I found an item on eBay which reflects this idea about the permanence of libraries--and the impermanence of library users--as well as any haiku: a 100-year-old Carnegie-Stout postcard.

Postcard, Carnegie-Stout Public Library, Dubuque
click to enlarge image
I won the auction for the postcard with a bid of 70 cents, not a bad deal for a beautiful color image of Dubuque's public library from the turn of the century, close to the time when the Carnegie building first opened 1902.

The handwritten note on the back of the postcard is especially interesting. Arthur in Dubuque wrote to Miss Zoe Smith in Webster City, Iowa to say he was a free man now and working for the government and he'd like to come see her.

Postcard Back
click to enlarge image
I wondered about Arthur's newfound freedom. Did he just get out of jail? Or maybe he had divorced his wife? Would Zoe Smith be eager to see Arthur? Or would she be surprised, or maybe even frightened?

The card is postmarked December 27, 1912, and Arthur's address of 110 Center Place in Dubuque is legible, so I started my research with those bits of information in hopes of learning more about Arthur and Zoe.

Arthur

The 1910-1911 city directory at Carnegie-Stout Public Library shows that Arthur Kline lived at 110 Center Place with Joseph H. Kline, a postal clerk with the Railway Mail Service. Arthur worked at S. P. Wadley Company, a butter and egg wholesaler at 200 South Locust Street.

Joseph H. Kline was Arthur's father, according to the 1910 U.S. Federal Census. Arthur was 17 years old at that time, having been born around 1893. Before moving to Center Place, Arthur lived on Chestnut Street in Dubuque with his mother and father and younger brother and sister.

Google News ArchiveThe Kline's address on the postcard, 110 Center Place, is probably 1132 Center Place today. Some Dubuque streets were renamed and renumbered during the 1920s. The Klines are listed at 110 Center Place before those changes and at 1132 Center Place afterwards.

When Arthur's father Joseph died in 1926, his funeral services were held at home at 1132 Center Place. Arthur's mother Addie lived at the same address until she passed away in 1940, and Arthur's brother Russell Kline and his family lived in that house for many more years.

With a tip from Kris Gallagher, Teacher Librarian at Dubuque Senior High School, I found Arthur's senior portrait in the 1910 yearbook, The Echo. Arthur attended Central High School at 15th and Locust Streets. Arthur's full name was Joseph Arthur Kline. He appears to have gone by 'Arthur' until after his father Joseph died in the mid 1920s.

click to enlarge image
According to city directories and census records, Arthur's father Joseph was a railway postal clerk. This helped me figure out the handwriting on the front of Arthur's postcard: "Forgot to tell you I am a railway mail clerk."

So at the end of 1912, Arthur Kline, age 19, had an exciting new job with the government, in the same line of work as his father, which regularly took him at least as far away as Webster City, 167 miles from Dubuque. This must have seemed liberating to Arthur after attending high school, working for a butter and egg wholesaler, and living at home with his younger brother and sister.

I do not know if Arthur ever visited Zoe Smith, but less than two years after he mailed the postcard, Arthur married Mabel Irene Benedict in Fort Dodge, Iowa, about 20 miles west of Webster City. According to Iowa marriage records, Arthur was 22 and Mabel was 20 when they married in 1914.

When Arthur registered for the draft in 1917, he lived in Chicago and was employed by the "U.S. Gov." as a "R.R. Postal Clerk" at the LaSalle Street Station. At 25, Arthur was tall and medium build, with blue eyes and black hair. Although World War I lasted through 1918, later census records show that Arthur was not a military veteran.

Arthur and Mabel were still in Chicago in 1920. They were both employed as "terminal mail" clerks, and they lived with Mabel's mother Ida Benedict and Mabel's younger brother and sister in a rented house.

By 1930, Arthur and Mabel owned a home worth $8,500 at 21 Poplar Place in La Grange, Illinois near Chicago. Joseph was still a railroad mail clerk. They lived alone with their 9-year-old son, Robert.

Unfortunately, Arthur passed away a short time later. According to the Chicago Daily Tribune, Arthur died suddenly on December 2, 1936. He was 44 and was still working as a railroad postal clerk.

Arthur's funeral was held at home at 21 Poplar Place, and he was buried in the La Grange cemetery. He left behind two sons with Mabel, Robert and Joseph.

Zoe

Zoe Smith of Webster City was harder to track down. Zoe, about age 5, appears with her family in the 1900 U.S. Federal Census at 1100 1st Street in Webster City. Zoe's father Nathaniel Smith was a day laborer.

By 1910, Zoe and her family had moved to 1162 10th Street in Des Moines, about 70 miles south of Webster City. At that time, Zoe was 14 years old.

One of Zoe's older sisters, Merle Smith, still lived in Webster City in 1910. Merle owned a  millinery shop there until the 1940s. An announcement in the Webster City Tribune on July 25, 1913 seems to indicate that Zoe Smith spent time there, too: "Misses Merle and Zoe Smith went to Des Moines this morning, where the former goes to buy part of her fall millinery stock."

Webster City Tribune
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I couldn't find much about Zoe Smith after 1913, around the time she was 17 and Arthur sent the postcard to her. Zoe Smith's name does not appear on a list of Webster City school graduates, so either Zoe did not graduate at all or she attended school somewhere else, maybe in Des Moines where she lived in 1910.

Oddly, a 'Zoe Smith' is mentioned in Bert Leston Taylor's humor column "A Line-O'-Type or Two" in the Chicago Daily Tribune on October 18, 1912: "LYLE BLACK and Zoe Smith were married in Liscomb, Ia., the other day, and no one thought to play the anvil chorus."

A Line-O'-Type or Two
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Iowa marriage records show that a 'Lyle J. Black' was born in Webster City in 1895, but he went on to marry Ruth Casler in 1920. I couldn't find any other records to verify that Zoe Smith married Lyle Black, so perhaps the blurb in the Chicago column was a joke or just a strange coincidence.

Since I was stuck, I sent an email asking for help to Reference Librarian Ketta Lubberstedt-Arjes at Kendall Young Library in Webster City. Ketta replied with a copy of pages from a Webster City funeral home index which show that Merle E. Kellogg (nee Smith) died in 1967, and that Merle's sister Mrs. Zoe Herbel lived at 188 East 19th Street in Costa Mesa, California.

With Zoe's married name, I found her in the 1930 census in Los Angeles living with her husband, Earl L. Herbel. Zoe G. Herbel, 31 years old, was a saleswoman at a drygoods store. Earl, age 25, was a repairman at an auto repair garage. Like Zoe, Earl was originally from Iowa. They were married in Los Angeles around March 1926, according to an announcement in the Adams County Free Press of Corning, Iowa.

Zoe Gladys Herbel died on February 6, 1972 in Huntington Beach, California, and she was buried in Glendale, California, almost 60 years after Arthur sent the postcard to her.

Resources

Most of the information above came from Ancestry Library Edition, a genealogy database accessible at Carnegie-Stout Public Library. I looked at other library databases, too, including HeritageQuest Online, NewsBank, and ProQuest Historical Newspapers. And I checked old city directories and the card index of obituaries at Carnegie-Stout.

Some online sites were useful, like Encyclopedia Dubuque, FamilySearch.org, IAGenWeb, Google News Archive, NewspaperARCHIVE.com, and THOnline.com's Obituary Archive.

Ketta Lubberstedt-Arjes, Reference Librarian at Kendall Young Library in Webster City, Iowa, and Kris Gallagher, Teacher Librarian at Dubuque Senior High School, were both very helpful.

These resources can't tell us how Arthur knew Zoe, why Arthur chose a Carnegie-Stout Public Library postcard to send, or if Zoe ever received the card and responded. But they can provide a little context to help us better understand people, like Arthur and Zoe, who lived before us.


Michael May
Adult Services Librarian
Carnegie-Stout Public Library

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Dubuque Newspapers in Google News Archive


Here's a list of some Dubuque, Iowa newspapers, approximately in reverse chronological order, which can still be accessed via Google News Archive.

Coverage is not complete, and many issues do not appear to be searchable by keyword, but if you have a specific date you might be able to find articles by browsing to those issues.

To find obituary dates, try the THonline.com Obituary Archive Search.

For tips and tricks, see How to Find Dubuque Obituaries Online and Who Can Use the Telegraph Herald Digital Archive.


The Telegraph-Herald
22,552 issues
Aug 17, 1903 - Dec 31, 2004

The Telegraph-Herald and Times-Journal
1,500 issues
Aug 1, 1919 - May 19, 1935

Dubuque Telegraph-Herald
1,207 issues
Oct 27, 1901 - Dec 20, 1931

Dubuque Daily Telegraph
293 issues
Jan 1, 1901 - Oct 27, 1901

Dubuque Daily Herald
4,897 issues
Sep 28, 1866 - Dec 31, 1900

Dubuque Sunday Herald
1,024 issues
Feb 15, 1885 - Apr 17, 1898

Dubuque Herald
4,973 issues
Jan 1, 1860 - Feb 14, 1885

Daily Dubuque Herald
222 issues
Oct 21, 1868 - Jul 12, 1869

Dubuque Democratic Herald
489 issues
Sep 10, 1863 - Sep 10, 1865

Daily Express and Herald
576 issues
Nov 17, 1855 - Jun 30, 1859

Weekly Express and Herald
61 issues
Oct 22, 1856 - Dec 30, 1857

Dubuque Weekly Observer
18 issues
Jul 1, 1854 - Nov 3, 1854

Iowa News
48 issues
Jun 3, 1837 - Jun 16, 1838



Monday, April 30, 2012

Researching a Historic Property

Have you ever wanted to find out more about your historic home or property?  On Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. Dave Johnson and Wally Wernimont from the City of Dubuque Planning Services Office will be presenting a program on researching a historic property.  The program will be held in the 3rd Floor Aigler Auditorium from 7:00-8:00 p.m. at Carnegie-Stout Public Library.  The program will take you through a step-by-step approach for finding more information about your home or other properties.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

March's Magazine of the Month is "Internet Genealogy"

Carnegie-Stout's magazine of the month for March is Internet Genealogy. This magazine provides information about and reviews of online resources for genealogical research. In addition to pieces on technology, there are articles about the unexpected finds and challenges faced by individual genealogists. We also subscribe to Family Chronicle, another genealogy focused magazine by the publishers of Internet Genealogy.

In addition to Carnegie-Stout's collection of local newspapers on microfilm and corresponding obituary index, local genealogists will be happy know that we provide access to HeritageQuest Online and the library edition of Ancestry.com (available only within the library). You may also be interested in our print collection of local history and genealogy titles found near the Reference Desk.

Anyone interested in learning more about genealogical research is invited to attend the ongoing series of instructional sessions by the Dubuque Family History Center. The next class will be tonight (March 1st) from 7-8:30 p.m. with four more sessions following on March 8th, March 15th, March 29th, and April 5th. For more information, please contact the Reference Desk.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Genealogy Opportunity


The folks behind Irishfest La Crosse have asked us to put out the word about their genealogy program at this year's festival. They'll have laptops with internet access, a bunch of volunteers, and some librarians on hand to help you start or continue your genealogical research. The festival runs August 7-9 with genealogical programs available in the early afternoon. Check out the above links for more details.

EDIT: I forgot to mention something important: You don't have to be Irish to take advantage of these services!