“We attempt to reveal the lives of our predecessors through the tweets of yesteryear: mostly one-line brevities from old newspapers.”

Tweets of Old is a stream that began on Twitter as a convenient way to store interesting old news found while doing research for my book “The Extraordinary Catalog of Peculiar Inventions,” an exploration of fraternal lodge rituals in the late 19th, early 20th centuries, and the company which created the extraordinary props and prank devices used for them.

Tweets of Old are “one-liners,” as they appeared--or close. These occasionally gossipy news briefs were popular in small town papers. They were listed under headings entitled, “tidbits,” “jottings,” “scintillations,” “whisperings,” “siftings,” “dots,” “echos,” “crumbs,” “ripples,” “telegraphs,” and so on.

Most “Tweets of Old” are transcribed by me from actual antique newspapers or from digital files found in online archives. Thanks to devoted genealogists who painstakingly scan and catalogue these gems, I am able to do this.