May 8 - Town anniversary booklets or county history books

May 8 – Check libraries and historical societies for ancestral town anniversary booklets or newspaper accounts of centennial celebrations. They usually include retrospectives and early residents’ biographies.

I have found a few relatives listed in the biographies. Keep in mind that the publishers of the anniversary books charged to have your biography listed in the book. Thus this meant usually only those more prominent residents paid for this option. Plus, they wrote their own biography and even those names and dates might be accurate, the rest might be a little more embellished.