My cousin Gail in Ohio recently sent me an email with a link to a prodigious project that was undertaken by the Berea Historical Society. The society has digitalized and placed online pages and pages of newspapers from Berea going back as far as 1830. I lived my whole life in the Berea area, and my parents, grandparents, and even some great grandparents were residents of Berea. I have searched the archived newspapers and found many articles about my family.
This article is the obituary of my great grandfather, Charles Plau, who died in 1894. I knew that he died very young, but did not know that it was tragic accident which took his life.
They do not mention the name of the widow, but she was Susie (nee Marti) Plau, my great grandmother, who came to this country from Switzerland when she was a little girl.
The newspapers in those days were full of short reports of mundane local happenings that nowadays would never make the news. This item from 1899 tells that one of Susie's children suffered a broken arm.
Notice that the item says that Mrs. Plau is to be pitied for this addition to her heavy burden... a widow with five children. Leslie, would have been my great uncle, but he died before I was born.
On a happier note, this social item appeared in 1900.
Moving to the English branch of my family, I found a short report on the death of another great grandfather, John Paintin, in 1914.
In 1926, his widow, my great grandmother, received a more proper obituary.
Mrs. Lola Plau was my maternal grandmother. I have cousins in England who are related to me through the Bowsher line, and I have visited the village of Eastbury. I have seen the house where Fannie was born and visited the church where she and John Paintin were married.
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