Compiled by Lois Barris
Many thanks to Forestville Historian, Mrs Mildred Learn Becker for allowing us to extract information from the copies of the Forestville Free Press in her possession. These were hit and miss (mostly miss) issues starting in .the 1990\’s, With copies here and there up until 1950. How we wish someone had thought to save those other copies, but we are so grateful that these exist and give us a glimpse of rural life during these years………
We are genealogists and did the extraction with the bias of a family historian. We included all mention of births, deaths and marriages. Also, because the papers are so fragile and will not be available for researchers to go to the original, we included all those gossipy little mentions of coming and going that indicated a family relationship. We did not include items that mentioned individual visits unless a family relationship was indicated, and ignored the notes that so and so \”found business in Dunkirk.\” We also ignored repeat mention of those who enjoyed seeing their name in print in every issue. We did try to include moves to a new residence or visiting relatives from distant states. we especially noted the moves of the farm families who worked for other farmers and seemed to change residence every year in late winter……………
The items are arranged in a rather loose alphabetical order with those known to be related tied together. Often related items found in the same column or the same or consequent issue are tied to a heading under another individual\’s name. So that you may find your relatives in these unrelated entries, we have included an every name index. The spelling and the typesetting in these old gems are both frustratingly inaccurate, so the researcher must look under a variety of spellings to find all the information that may be included about the family you are researching. Letter designations are used for events: B=birth; D=death; M=marriage; F=family; R=residence; X=almost anything else………….
Understand that the person doing the extractions does not use periods following initials and abbreviations and tends to use the modern-day 2 letter postal abbreviations for states………..
The researcher should be aware that these little newspapers sometimes received and passed along incorrect information. When we found a retraction of an item, we included that, but with so many papers missing, we may have written some creative family history……….
Microfilm of these existing papers may be found in Patterson Library in Westfield and Anderson-Lee Library in Silver Creek…………..
Lois Barris 1998
