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No, I use a combination of newspapers, old books, genealogy websites and the U.S. Censuses and draft registration cards.

Also one of the most powerful attribution tools for attributing tickets, is finding other tickets made by the same local printer.

A.L. Munsey's tickets in particular were very easy to attribute because they look identical (except owner's name) to A.J. Bryant's and L.V. Bryant's tickets which are from Van Buren, AR which is right next to Alma.

 

Check out this uncut sheet of tickets.



I had to research Elmer Burbage from scratch.

First step, go to findagrave.com and input "Elmer Burbage". Luckily this is a fairly unique name and only about 4 people have ever had this name. One of the Elmers is immediately ruled out because he was born after 1924.

I then looked at the Censuses and found that of the three Elmers left, only one was a farmer (from Wicomico County, Maryland, a densely picker ticket populated area). The other two are from Brown County, Ohio and Norfolk, Virginia (neither of which are known for having picker tickets).

Using the censuses and newspapers, I find he had a Powellville, MD address.




Fast forward a few months I acquired this ticket:


Look familiar...

Unfortunately a quick check with findagrave.com tells us there are over 200 G.W. Hancocks! But, we known the general area this ticket was made thanks to Elmer Burbage. After some more in-depth research, only one G.W. Hancock matches everything, George Walter Hancock (born 1890-92, died sometime after 1940). He farmed in Parsonsburg, MD which less than 10 miles away from Elmer Burbage's hometown, Powellville.


I also find it fascinating is which corner of the original sheet this ticket came from based on the Burbage sheet. If you look at the "S" in "QUARTS" it has a small line in the center and there is a gap on the top left and bottom left sides of the star border. These characteristics are seen on the Hancock's ticket and the bottom left corner of Burbage's uncut sheet.

 

They are circa 1940.

A coin shop owner I know dabbles in them and share some stories with me one day about them and I was hooked. I really enjoy being able to own extremely rare pieces for fractions of the cost of U.S. or even other token series rarities cost. It's also very exciting to collect, research and discover where almost no one has gone before.