Genealogy buffs in the Hatton and Reynolds areas interested in tracing the roots of their family trees are in luck.
More than 45,000 pages from the Hatton Free Press spanning more than 90 years and more than 5,300 pages taken from the long-since-closed Reynolds Enterprise from 1898 through 1926 have been published online.
Jack Ludwig of Hillsboro, a volunteer with the Traill County Historical Society, spearheaded efforts to digitize additional issues of the Hatton Free Press as well as the Reynolds Enterprise this winter.
Ludwig and his late wife, Rosalind, were instrumental in digitizing issues of the Hillsboro Banner seven years ago, which led to editions of the paper from 1882 through 2019 appearing online.
“It’s fun to look through the papers for people who really get into their family histories,” Ludwig said. “But you have to be careful because you can fall down a rabbit hole when you first start out.”