Theodore Trautvetter--$25 Reward

You never know what you will find in the papers--or who you will find is missing in the papers. 

In January of 1890 my uncle apparently disappeared and his family offered a $25 reward for his location as mentioned in this image from a Quincy, Illinois newspaper.

Publication: The Quincy Daily Whig; Date: Jan 18, 1890; digital image, Quincy Historical Newspaper Archive, Quincy [Illinois] Public Library Website, www.quincylibrary.org, accessed 2 January 2013

Theodore returned home at some point and remained there until his death (he is enumerated with his wife in Rocky Run Township, Hancock County, Illinois, in the 1900 census) . Since I know he was missing in January of 1890, I should search local Warsaw newspapers for that time period for additional references to his disappearance. It may be that the weekly paper has more information than the Quincy newspaper did.

Consider searching for your "missing" ancestors in the newspaper. Perhaps someone advertised for information on their whereabouts and perhaps they were missing to their contemporary relatives as well.

I have a cousin, Arsulus Rampley who "went missing" in the 1920s and was never located. A court case in the 1940s referenced his disappearance and declared him legally dead, but I've never conducted newspaper searches to see if there is any mention of him. With that unusual name, locating references (if any were published) should not be too difficult and perhaps I should do that.