This morning’s goal was to locate a death notice or obituary for Margaret B. Richardson who died 9 April 1896 in Baltimore.

First, I searched The Sun using my GenealogyBank subscription. I found two matches for death notices which was satisfying. But, the digital image was a black and white copy and there were two key things I couldn’t read–Margaret’s age and the street number for her daughter’s address.

Next, I decided to see what I could find using my Newspapers subscription. The Sun was also available there, so I took a look. And, lucky me! The image there was grayscale and very easy to read.

The takeaway is not that Newspapers is better than GenealogyBank. The important lesson here is this: when we come across a poor-quality digital image, it can be worthwhile to look for another version or to seek out the original record.

__________

“Died [Margaret B. Richardson],” The Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 10 April 1896, p. 4, col. 2; GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com : viewed 30 August 2018).
 “Died [Margaret B. Richardson],” The Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 10 April 1896, p. 4, col. 2; Newspapers (https://www.newspapers.com  :  viewed 30 August 2018).