I am so pleased to announce that the Lock 52 Historical Society has completed the first phase of the digitization of the Port Byron newspapers.

Last December I wrote in my monthly column that I thought that the available digital copies of the Port Byron papers began around 1905. I accepted that what was available on-line was the sum total of what actually existed. Thankfully society member Joyce Biss is a much deeper thinker than I am and she began to ask what Port Byron papers might be found in the hidden (and not so hidden) museum and historical society collections, and how these collections compared with what was available on-line.  So I was delighted to hear that Joyce was finding many papers from the 1800s. As she began to find these resources, Joyce asked to set up a Newspaper Committee, and this committee began an informal consortium made up of; the Port Byron Library, the Seymour Library, the Cayuga County Historian, the Montezuma Historical Society, and the Cayuga Museum. All these organizations either had historic ties to Port Byron, or held copies of existing papers. Once the newspapers had been found and inventoried, a goal was set to fund-raise for the thousands of dollars needed to have all these papers digitized. Anyone who has taken up the job of fundraising knows that that task was was far more daunting then the discovery of all those hidden papers. As it turns out, a wonderful gift from the estate of Wesley Mills funded the entire project, and this allowed us to move right to the next step.

Advantage Preservation, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was chosen to do the digitization. Advantage Preservation was well recommended by the Seymour Library. The digitization process they use produces a very clean and crisp product. And what is so nice is that you can read the entire paper by flipping through the pages. No more frustrating “continued on” and then searching for that page moments.

Our website now has a Digital Resources tab on the menu where you can find links to the Lock 52 Historical Society and Seymour Library portals. You can also find links to our other on-line resources there. We will add to this collection as we rediscover more copies of the papers, so If you happen to have an issue or two in your family files, please send us a message. We also wish to thank the Wayuga News for their help in making these resources available. They have been very kind in allowing us to use the more recent editions of the Port Byron Chronicle.

The second phase will be the addition of the 1920 and 30s Orange and Black school newsletters. These well written newsletters offer a look at school life in that time period. We hope that you will find these resources useful. We are always here to help you get started or to try to knock down your genealogical walls.