Thompsonville News and Informational CDs
The Betsie Valley District Library has a collection of local historical newspapers that give us a peek into our past and can provide links into our ancestry. Our library is in possession of several newspapers from the early 1900s through 1947, but because of their fragile condition, they have been preserved in CD-ROM format to be accessed through computers. Years of the paper that the library has on DVD are 1900, 1901, 1903, 1904, 1908, 1909, 1913, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1940, 1943, 1943, 1945, and 1947 (there are some years that we have several papers, other years only a few). These are in an Adobe format and aren’t word searchable. Consequently, we have champion volunteers in Harold and Linda Saffron!!! Mr. and Mrs. Saffron have taken it upon themselves to archive the papers, and have broken them down by year into names, places, and specific topics to make searches a lot easier for our patrons.
Also, with sincere thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Saffron for their diligence and dedication to the preservation of the Thompsonville News, and for their generosity, we are pleased to announce that the Betsie Valley District Library has been gifted updated digital copies of these historical local newspapers. The interactive CD-ROMs contain issues from the early 1900s to the 1930s, and a farewell notice from the Benzie Banner in 1949.
The Thompsonville News CD-ROMs contains digital copies of the actual newspaper. The years available are 1900, 1901, 1903, 1904, 1908, 1909, 1913, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1940, 1943, 1943, 1945, and 1947. Not all years are complete. Pages can be zoom in on for easier reading. Because of the particular nature of the print, some words may be hard to distinguish, but for the most part, is readable.
The Thompsonville News Tidbits CD-ROMs contains miscellaneous information about the residents of Benzie County, the towns and cities in the county and surrounding areas, new and current business announcements, topics of special interest, and under the Genealogy file; an alphabetical list of names. The available years are 1900, 1901, 1903, 1904, 1908, 1909, 1913, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1940, 1943, 1943, 1945, and 1947. Mr. and Mrs. Saffron are continuing to work on The Thompsonville News Tidbits CD-ROMs to add additional information to the CD-ROMs. The Library and community are very grateful for Harold and Linda Saffron for volunteering to do this for not only the Library, but our entire community! Patrons are welcome to come to the library and view the CD-ROMs on our computers. They are not available for checkout, but prints can be made for a modest charge.