Northwest Ohio Genealogical Post- Joyner Family

The purpose of these segments will be outline actual searches and the methods used to find the information needed. The task asked for in this search was to find some obituaries.

The two people that I was to search for were Ben Joyner who died in Toledo, Lucas Co., OH on Dec 31, 1991. Second person was Amanda Joyner who died 5 May 1929. The reader was looking for copies of two obituaries. Several sources can be consulted to find the information that was requested. The first is to locate the obits in a newspaper in the area. The local newspaper is the Toledo Blade which is microfilmed and located at the Toledo Public Library in their Genealogy and Local History room. Obituaries are indexed up until the 1960's which makes it very easy to find and locate the date a obituary was printed. After that period of time you have to do some searching. Second source would be the City Directories that are also located at the library.

The first person I began my search for was Ben Joyner. Typically the person is not listed in the paper for the day that they died. So I started on the day after. The obituaries appear in the local section of the paper and have been there for decades. I finally ended up finding the obituary I was looking for on January 3, 1992. It indicated that he had lived 90 years. He worked in construction for many years and had many survivors. Project completed.

The second person to search for was Amanda Joyner. First thing to check for this time period in Toledo is the index of obituaries. After doing a search in the days following the death I was unable to locate the obituary. I was not told prior to the search that the family was of African American descent. It is my belief that, because of the times in which she died it was not unusual to have her obit omitted from the mainstream paper. Luckily I consulted with a second source that gave me some indication of the time in which she died. That was the city directory. The break in dates and continuation of a Henry Joyner indicated that she was survived by her husband. This was later confirmed by the 1930 census for Toledo, Lucas Co., OH and the obit of Henry Joyner.

Well this is the first in I hope many that I get to do. Thanks again for the contribution.

On a side note I wanted you folks to know I was recently interviewed for the Putnam Co. Sentinel in Ottawa, OH on the subject of genealogy and this blog. The article will appear on the nineteenth of December for you folks in that area. Thanks again for your support.