Compiled by Lois Barris
This is an alphabetic list of births, deaths and marriages noted in the Evening Observer for the six years beginning January 1, 1900 and ending December 31,1905. It was undertaken as a convenience to future genealogical researchers and is meant to be of assistance in tracing family relationships, and as an index to locate the original obituary or report of the marriage or birth……
When one is researching a surname, they should first look to that name in the alphabetic listing. All entries include six columns: 1 the full name, 2 a key to the event B=birth, D=death, or M=marriage, 3 the date of the event, 4 the location of the event [the street address if the event happened in Dunkirk and this address was given; if the event happened in Fredonia, there is a street address followed by Fred/Fre/Fr/orF], 5 comments (here I have used a different format for each type of event) and 6 the date of publication of the Evening Observer issue from which that entry was noted………
Included in the comment column for a death is the place and date of birth, parents names and name of spouse. The maiden name of mother and wife is in parentheses. This form worked well in the indexes, completed earlier, for obituaries in the last few decades. However, in these earlier newspapers, death notices took a much different form and were found scattered throughout the paper. The researcher should look at papers covering several days before and after the date noted in this index for all the available information. Sometimes there was almost no information except a note from an outlying community that a funeral had been attended. Therefore this comment column contains any variety of genealogical information available that fit the one-line format……..
Birth notices were of two major types. Occasionally there appeared a list of \”Recent Births.\” These were apparently copied from births registered at Dunkirk City Hall. Early in this time period these included sex (not name) of the child, name and address of the parents and the date of birth. Unfortunately, not many of these lists were printed in this six year period. Some families seemed to use the paid column \”City and Vicinity\” to announce a birth. Also, birth announcements appeared in the rural news columns of the various out- lying villages. Birth notices copied from these \”Recent Births,\” can be determined by the notation of the street address in the \”location\” column. The second type of birth announcement was the separate news item, or in some cases, a paid announcement among the business advertisements. These were indexed using the city in the location column and the street address, if given, in the comment column. Brook\’s Hospital is given as the location of the birth only if the announcement specified that the birth occurred at the hospital…….
Marriages are entered twice in the alphabetic listing, under the surname of each the bride and the groom. The comment column will include the spouse\’s name and name and address of spouse\’s parents. An attempt was made to fill the one-line format with information of interest to a genealogical researcher, so a place of residence or an attendant\’s name mayor may not appear. A very few divorces or other news items related to marriage are included from this time period……..
Starting on page 167 is an index to collateral surnames. This is not a complete index. It is only intended to guide the researcher to those names not listed alphabetically. Included here are maiden names of the mother of a birth, the mother and wife in an obituary , and the names of parents of a bride or groom if that name is different than the one in the alphabetic listing……
Researchers with a particular interest in an event noted in this index will find much more information by looking up the original notice in the Observer, using column six as a guide. The Evening Observer is available on microfilm at Reed Library on the campus of New York State University College at Fredonia and at the Dunkirk Free Library……..
Lois Barris, 1993, …….
Dec 1882-1899; (17+ years) $45.00…..
1900 through 1905 (6 years) $38.00……
the remaining 19 volumes follow in 5 year segments…..
1906 through 1910 $38.00,
1911 through 1915 $38.00,
1916 through 1920 $38.00,
1921 through 1925 $38.00,
1926 through 1930 $38.00,
1931 through 1935 $38.00,
1936 through 1940 $38.00,
1941 through 1945 $38.00,
1946 through 1950 $38.00,
1951 through 1955 $38.00,
1956 through 1960 $38.00,
1961 through 1965 $38.00,
1966 through 1970 $38.00,
1971 through 1975 $38.00,
1976 through 1980 $38.00,
1981 through 1985 $38.00,
1986 through 1990 $38.00,
1991 through 1995 $38.00,
1996 through 2000 $38.00,….
2001 through 2005 $38.00
2006 through 2010 $38.00
paper, comb binding each volume
