Chatting with my CIR co-founder Dan Noyes yesterday about researching family history, he had some tips I can pass on, including tracing relatives through ancestry.com, the DNA-testing company. He says he's found some ancestors that way.
Of course, local newspapers have traditionally been the source for most family news from the pre-digital era. Plus if your relatives owned a business, they may have advertised in the local papers. There is always the possibility they ended up in the criminal or civil justice records, and of course property records can be a major source of information.
Some of this data is online, but you are more likely to be successful if you visit the area personally.
People who's served in the military are traceable, and some professional organizations keep historical records. Colleges as well, as Dan says that there is a service that is now digitizing school yearbooks.
Obituaries are always helpful; I just reread my mother's yesterday, and it contained details I'd forgotten. For instance, that she arrived in Detroit precisely on her 8th birthday in 1923. She died precisely on her mother's birthday 79 years later at the age of 87.
There are immigration records at Ellis Island (we have my grandfather's name on a ledger there) or Angel island, which is where many Asian-Americans entered the country.
If your family is religious, a church, synagogue or temple might be useful. And then there is the Mormon Church's tradition of collecting all of our vital records.
You can always search marriage and divorce records, though these are localized for the most part.
Best of all, of course, are the kinds of journals and writings I discussed yesterday, along with photographs and old home movies. All of this material, when combined with personal interviews if you can do them, fill out the picture of a life.
It's conceivable that as more historical documents are digitized that merely entering relative's name in Google may yield results.
You can also investigate your own life using all the same tools. It might be worth the effort, especially if your name is of the less common variety. Google has gotten better and better at pinpointing which person you are among others with the same name.
All of this is in the spirit of capturing our lives for our ancestors and more generally for posterity. Every life matters. And that means that everyone's story does too.
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The news:
* Continent-spanning storms triggered blackouts in Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi, halted one-third of U.S. oil production and disrupted vaccinations in 20 states. (NYT)
* Factories are humming and consumers are spending again, signs that the United States could emerge from the current health crisis with its strongest growth in decades. The question is whether that fast-paced rebound can be made to last. (WashPo)
* Sullivan says U.S. has started communicating with Iran over detained Americans (Reuters)
* Some evangelical circles have incubated and spread conspiracy theories for years. It's part of a movement called Christian nationalism that researchers call a threat to American democracy. (NPR)
* The World Health Organization's preliminary report into the origins of the novel coronavirus will recommend more extensive contact tracing of the first known patient with Covid-19 in Wuhan, China, as well as the supply chain of nearly a dozen traders in the Huanan seafood market, which is thought to have played a role in the early spread of Covid-19 in late 2019, according to investigators familiar with the draft report. (CNN)
* Twice as many Americans have died from Covid-19 as early worst-case projections. (NYT)
* ‘Front of the pack’: Off-duty Pa. officer charged at police during the Capitol riots, FBI says (Washo)
* The Capitol rioters speak just like the Islamist terrorists I reported on (Jim Sciutto/WashPo)
* Huge crowds in Myanmar undeterred by worst day of violence following coup (Reuters)
* Waiving standardized test requirements during the pandemic brought more hopefuls to the Ivy League and large state schools, while less-selective colleges face an alarming drop. (NYT)
* More teachers are asked to double up, instructing kids at school and at home simultaneously (WashPo)
* French city of Nice asks tourists to stay away amid COVID surge (Reuters)
* The Boredom Economy -- The pandemic is terrible. It can also be tedious. And that tedium is shaping what people buy and how productive they are. (NYT)
* Members of Malcolm X's family have made public what they described as a letter written by a deceased police officer stating that the New York Police Department and FBI were behind the 1965 killing of the famed Black activist and civil rights advocate. (Reuters)
* As Biden seeks end to Yemen war, rebels press offensive for strategic province (WashPo)
* Is This the End of Tipping in Restaurants? (NYT)
* Australia's government pledged a publicity campaign for its rollout of COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday - but not in Facebook advertisements, as a feud continues over the social media giant blocking news content from its platform in the country. (Reuters)
* #3 Michigan (16-1) beat #4 Ohio State (18-5) 92-87 in a classic Big Ten basketball matchup, the first time in their 112-year history both were ranked in the top five nationally. (CBS)
* Archaeologists Uncover Separate Team Of Archaeologists Digging Towards Them From Other Side Of Globe (The Onion)
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-- The Beatles
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