Friday, January 19, 2007

What was lost

Well, I continue to investigate everything that I can. I have not been able to find any more information on Nathaniel, nor any information on Minnie's burial. I feel like I am in serious need of some local family help. Then I had a glimmer yesterday evening. On a whim I decided to search for Jacob again. Basically because I was curious as to what local newspapers would have been in operation, during his life. If there was a newspaper open in Wichita Falls, and anyone got wind of his death - perhaps there could have been a small obituary.
I discovered that there were actually two main newspapers in operation for 1907 to the mid 1980's. There was the Wichita Daily Times and the Record Times. I have not yet found anything thing online from the Record Times, but I did find an archive of the Wichita Daily Times, from 1911 to 1923. I figured that it might be a long shot, but I took it anyway. I searched on Sommerfelt and got nothing, I searched on Jacob and had a list longer than my arm. Then I searched on Sommerfeldt, since that is a common alternate spelling - and I got a hit! To further cement my belief that maybe I found something - I searched for 'Jacob Sommerfeldt' and came away empty-handed. However, not to be discouraged, I changed my search to look for 'Jakob Sommerfeldt' to try the traditional German spelling of his first name - and the same date popped out - August 12, 1921!
Now it is time to scour all 12 pages of this paper to see if I can find any more information. I suddenly feel like I might have found a missing brick in the wall that I have been facing. Just enough that perhaps I might be able to peek on the other side and perhaps find a way to bring it down. Here goes nothing!!

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