Week 6 – 2023: Social Media #52Ancestors

Before there was social media as we know and love (or hate), there were newspapers. If your ancestors lived in an area with a local newspaper, they can be a gold mine of information.

My most favorite local papers were those published in Parsons Kansas. Beginning in 1905 when he was thirteen years old and ending with his 1977 obituary I have clipped no less than ninety articles about my husband’s grandfather, Lee Baty (and I know there are more I haven’t yet saved). The papers reported on everything he did: from him being a catcher for the high school baseball team, to when he left for the University of Michigan in 1911, to his bout with typhoid fever in 1915, to his service in the Army and onward.[1] Even having dinner with his parents and siblings warranted a short blurb in the paper.[2]

These regular postings provide a firsthand look into Lee and his families lives. How would I have known that Lee made the Michigan Freshman football team without the article explaining that, while he made the team, he decided not to play because of the time involved with practice.[3] He “just wanted to show them that he understands the game.” Nice. Also, not sure I would have known his political leanings nor how strongly he must have felt about politics without the story of how he and Kathryn (his wife) attended the 1932 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.[4] This convention was the first to nominate Franklin D. Roosevelt for president who went on to beat Herbert Hoover in a landslide.[5]

Even after Lee left Parsons to take a job in Kansas City in 1933, the local papers still kept up with him and it seems as if every visit home deserved an article in one or the other papers. On what appears to be his last visit to Parsons in August of 1971, Lee and Kathryn attended a reunion of Parsons High School and St. Patrick’s High School classes of 1904 through 1949.[6] They were of the eight members of the class of 1911 to attend. When he passed away in 1977, the Parsons Sun ran three separate articles on his death and funeral.[7]

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[1] “Local Brevities” The Parsons (Kansas) Daily Sun, 13 May 1905, p. 4, col. 7. “Lee Baty left this morning,” The Parsons (Kansas) Daily Sun, 28 September 1911, p. 3, col. 2. "Lee Baty who has been very ill with typhoid fever," Parsons (Kansas) Daily Eclipse, 23 November 1915, p. 6, col. 3;

[2] "Mrs. May Spence," The Parsons (Kansas) Daily Sun, 11 November 1924, p. 3, col. 3.

[3] “Word has been received from Lee Baty,” Parsons (Kansas) Daily Eclipse, 23 October 1911, p. 6, col. 4.

[4] "Batys to Demo Convention," The Parsons (Kansas) Sun, 27 June 1932, p. 2, col. 1.

[5] Wikipedia.org, “1932 United States presidential election,” rev. 01:12, 21 February 2023.

[6] “Alumni Reunions Held in Parsons,” The Parsons (Kansas) Sun, 2 August 1971, p. 2, col. 2-3.

[7] “Lee Baty,” The Parsons (Kansas) Sun, 22 February 1977, p. 8, col. 8. “Lee Baty,” The Parsons (Kansas) Sun, 23 February 1977, p. 14, col. 7. “Deaths and Funerals - Lee Baty,” The Parsons (Kansas) Sun, 23 February 1977, p. 14, col. 7-8.