Wedding Wednesday....Matt and Mary Bell

Marriage certificate of Matt and Mary Bell, 1893

May I just say that the changes to Family Search are awesome?
I was never really a fan of that site and everyone said it was the go to site for genealogy. It was just never user friendly enough for me. But now things are different and I'm in serious like with Family Search. I especially like the scanned documents that are being shared on the site. 


This marriage certificate is one that I found just minutes ago. I'd been to the public library today and happened to find a book in the research room called At the foot of the Beartooth Mountains: A history of the Finnish community of Red Lodge, Montana -  (1998) by Leona Lampi. I remembered that my great great grandpa, Matt Bell, had lived there and my great grandma, Elina Bell was born there. I scanned the index and found Matt's name and a couple of photos of his boys. I know little about this branch of the family tree, so I placed a hold on the book through the interlibrary loan program and jotted a down a few notes from the copy in the research room. I came home and logged onto Family search to see what I could find and lo and behold the marriage certificate popped right up. It's a boon too, with names of both the bride's and groom's parents' and the towns they came from in Finland. All new info to me. Also, the marriage month and date were information I didn't have before. Now I can't wait for the copy of the book to come so I can scour the pages for more information. Another productive day of sleuthing.

My Favorite Spot

This is my spot at the local public library. I spend as much time there as possible looking at microfilm and utilizing all the other resources available to me in the Heritage Room. I order my microfilm from the interlibrary loan program and wait, like a kid at Christmas, for the email to come to my inbox. "Your item is ready for pick up". Then I rush down to the library at the first opportunity and while away the hours searching and researching to my heart's content.

Today I spent a few hours looking through the Great Falls Tribune from June 1932. I was actually looking for a death notice for my maternal great-great grandma, but came up empty on that. Instead and unexpectedly, I found a notice that my paternal great grandpa had been released from the hospital on 15 June 1932. I have his death certificate that states 3 Sep. 1932 as his date of death. He had cancer. I hadn't expected to find him in the paper but was happy that I was able to walk away with something of interest to add to my files.

I've ordered more film from the State Library for the death dates of each of my great grandparents. Now I just wait for my notice to come. Merry Christmas to me.

Newspaper Research

I've fallen in love with the digital microfilm readers at the Missoula Public Library. I'm practicing my newpaper research by looking up the birth and death notices of an early Missoula family. For the past three years I've been researching the life and times of Sarah Elizabeth Countryman Woody. She was the wife of Missoula's first Mayor, Mr. Frank H. Woody and she was a force in her own right. I present her story at various events in Missoula and continue to pick away at my research of her life. Looking through old Missoulians Newspapers has been so fun and informative. I recently discovered that one roll of film from the library collection is missing. I ordered a copy of that roll from the State Library in Helena and was able to continue my research. With this newfound knowledge at hand, I'll be ordering, on interlibrary loan, films of the Great Falls tribune. Hopefully, I'll be able to track down some family related stories and information.
The society pages, in the old days, were full of the comings and goings and daily happenings of the community members. It's amazing what you can learn about people by scanning the old papers.
I found an amazing account of the bridal shower, wedding ceremony and reception of one of the Woody girls, right down to the decorations and music selections. Also one death notice gave a detailed account of the funeral service. These are the types of things that give life to our research. I wonder if Santa would bring me my own digital microfilm reader for Christmas.