I'm not a genealogist, but I often had to do such searches at my job. In that case, I would immediately go to the newspapers of the day. A fire in which an entire family perished would certainly have been reported. Many newspapers have been digitized and are easily searched online or at a local library. If not digitized, they would be available on microfilm.

During my time at work, an inquiry came in about a fire in 1925 where parents went to the town and left small children at home alone. One child died and another escaped through a window. I was able to do a newspaper search and there was quite a lengthy article about the sad event.

Another source that we would try was any local history that was published about the area.

Completely OT, a member of our staff who was searching old newspapers for information, came across a newspaper article reporting that a fortune teller predicted that Princess Elizabeth would become the queen.

Per their death certificates, the house caught on fire while they were asleep, and they "burned to death." I would presume, however, that smoke inhalation might have killed them first.

I have found a newspaper article, and will post the text of it later. It's on Newspapers.com, so unless you have a membership you can't get to it. But, the father had managed to get two children (Fay, age 2, and Jean, age 8) out of the house and went back in to try to save the others. "Firemen were handicapped by lack of water" and were unable to save any part of the house. Apparently the father had recently complained about a faulty flue.

Thank you, Lindsey. After I read your post I went back to FindAGrave and found Jean, who died at age 83 in 2011. She was married and had a son and daughter. Her memorial mentions the fire, and also says she was later predeceased by three siblings. It looks like a brother and two married sisters. Perhaps they were living elsewhere at the time of the fire. I wonder if any of them took in their orphaned little sisters.

OK, I've done more searching on Newspapers.com. There were three different write-ups that were published in many different papers on August 27, 1936. The son, Carl, is mentioned in two of them.

Below is an article that was published the following day on page 3 of The Scranton Republic (it was one long column -- I had to break it up):

"Carl Griffin made a pitiful attempt at identification." How awful for him.

The second to last paragraph is confusing.

Mr. Griffin, in addition to the surviving children . . .

I thought they meant Carl Griffin, which would bring the total number of Griffin children to 11. But then the last paragraph talks about Mrs. Griffin's siblings, so I guess the previous paragraph is about her husband's siblings.

Either way, such a tragedy. There's still a George Kinsman in town--maybe the fire chief's son.

Thanks, Lindsey!

This is so tragic and yet isn't it wonderful to be able to go back and learn their story?

It got me thinking about how things like this are no longer printed in the papers, at least not ours. All this history is being lost.

Our newspaper seems to only use Associated Press stories and not even in depth stories at that. There is very little story content. I don't think they even have more than a couple of actual reporters.

It is sad that these day to day events - social, crime and tragedy are no longer being recorded.

It got me thinking about how things like this are no longer printed in the papers, at least not ours. All this history is being lost.

I hadn't thought of that, Murraysmom, but it's absolutely true. Our local paper may be an exception--for now. I used to be a reporter/photographer there, and we did feature stories in addition to the news. They also have local ladies who write social columns--who's visiting whom, etc. But the Scranton paper of today would never devote that many column inches to a human-interest story about a house fire, especially one not in their county.

My old farmhouse had newspaper wedged into spaces between the hemlock planks that make up the walls, and when my son was a kid he used to carefully remove them and try to open them up. Most of the time they were far too brittle to hold together, but one was readable. We ran off a copy for all the students in his class.

To me, the most interesting part of the page was the social notes: Who bought a new driving horse, who was sick in bed, etc. It just made the period come alive. Our current news is just simply alarming.

I couldn't agree more.

Neighbors don't know neighbors anymore, but are sure informed on celebrity gossip. Hope someone interested in this lone gravestone story finds the info useful.

That's an impressive demonstration of what research information can be accessed online. It's too bad, we all lose as the newspaper business continues its decline,

Very interesting article.

The next to last paragraph is listing the late "Mr. Griffin's" survivors.

It is amazing to me what can be found online now.

I love looking at old newspapers. Such interesting stuff!

One time I keyed in my paternal grandmother's maiden name, and in return I got articles about some man trying to kidnap one of my grandmother's brothers (my granduncle)! I had never, ever, heard about this when I was growing up, so it was quite a surprise to read about it. Apparently, my great-grandfather heard the commotion and was able to grab his son out of the (attempted) kidnapper's arms.