Headlines.

Western New York has seen a few we'd like to forget in the last few days, with the deadly crash of a commercial jetliner in Clarence Center and the grisly murder of Aasiya Hassan, found beheaded in the Orchard Park offices of the television station she ran with her husband. Both shocking events happened a week ago today.

There were no thick black "hammer heads" about sensational crimes or devastating accidents screaming at my eyes as I scrolled through microfilm images of the earliest issues of this paper, then the Buffalo Daily Law Journal.

In the throes of the Great Depression, my Law Journal predecessors compiled court calendars, legal notices, public record and news into six weekly issues of four or perhaps six 20½-by-14-inch pages - about a third larger than our current page size.

The type is small, with rows upon rows of hand-laid text streaming down six columns, and news briefs about local and national business developments sharing space with a "What's Doing In Buffalo" column and entertainment listings under the heading "Amusements." Among them:

• "Building Industry Shows Contraction: Contracts For The Current Year Declined 30 Per Cent From the 1930 Record - Reductions in Costs Slight"

• "Increased Advertising Can Bring Boom in '32"

• "School in Kensington is Needed, Board is Told"

• "Judicial Council for State Favored Here: Selection of Presiding Justice In Each Judicial District Needed, Hinkley Tells Law Commission"

And there were vital statistics - records of births, deaths and marriage licenses - reminding me that life goes on, even during economic slowdowns.

I even came across some familiar names as I looked over these issues from decades past. One, from January 1932, included a notice of sale placed by the fabled - and now long-gone - law firm Moot Sprague Brownell Marcy Carr & Gulick, for its client Erie County Savings Bank, listing Lillian E. Geiger as referee. I interviewed Lillian Geiger Cowan in 1999, when she was honored as part of the University at Buffalo Law School's "100 Years of Women" celebration. At the time, Lillian was still practicing law. Now 101, she's still living at her home in Kenmore.

A listing of court and agency officials from 1973 included John T. Elfvin, a longtime federal judge who died last month, then the region's U.S. attorney.

And a 1953 item announced the formation of the law partnership of Oscar Smukler, who today maintains a solo law practice from Hertel Avenue offices, and George Zimmermann, recently retired. "We paid our secretary $40 a week - and she was a good secretary," Smukler told me by phone this week.

The headlines in the Buffalo Law Journal don't always refer to the biggest stories of our day, but for 80 years we've provided people an opportunity to learn what's going on around them - what properties are on the market, how big a mortgage a buyer took out, who has filed for bankruptcy, which lenders were successful in securing credit judgments. We've also offered our readers insights into the habits and personalities of many area lawyers and judges.

Sharing these stories with you and compiling this information is a privilege we don't take lightly. Thank you for reading, and for supporting us over the decades.

Annie Deck-Miller is managing editor and general manager of The Buffalo Law Journal.