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One of the key benefits of the millions of pages of digital newspapers in GenealogyBank is that newspapers reported on everything that happened in their area.

For example, Spooner’s Vermont Journal, a newspaper published in Windsor, Vermont – 68 miles away from Northfield, New Hampshire – reported on the tragic death of two young brothers in Northfield who “died within one hour of each other.”

Spooner’s Vermont Journal (Windsor, Vermont), 30 September 1826, page 3

Critically, this obituary gives us the names of these two boys: Eastman Sanborn (about 1823-1826) and Washington Lafayette Sanborn (1825-1826). So far, I haven’t found a record of them anywhere else.

The Sanborn family of Northfield, New Hampshire, are my cousins. As you drive north along Rt. 93 you can see the familiar, oversized Tilton Arch that is situated in Northfield. I am related to many of the people that lived in that town.

Photo: 1882 Memorial Arch of Tilton, located in Northfield, New Hampshire. Credit: SayCheeeeeese; Wikimedia Commons.

When I searched on FamilySearch and Ancestry I could find no mention of either one of these children. This contemporary record, published in Spooner’s Vermont Journal just days after their death, might be the only source easily accessible to genealogists to document them. I added their names to my family tree on both of those sites so that they can be permanently included in the family history – easily retrievable by family historians.

In records from the early 1800s it is common to find birth, baptismal or death records for infants that do not give the children’s names. Records in that time period often simply stated “son of,” “daughter of,” “male” or “female” with their names not being written on the old certificates.

Fortunately for little Eastman and Washington Lafayette Sanborn, their names were permanently recorded in GenealogyBank.

Don’t let the names of your relatives be lost. Find and document them in GenealogyBank.

Leave no child behind.