While driving to work this morning listening to a new
podcast, I had an thought for an interesting blog serial I could focus on.
I know I have totally not been posting like I had
wanted this year. Honestly 2016 has not been a
particularly fantastic year for me, I won’t bore you with all the details but
let’s say the hospital staff know me a bit too well. So, I haven’t focused on posting or on doing
ancestry research this year.
But, back to my idea!
So, this morning I was listening to a new (to me) podcast called
Medieval Death Trip. It sounds more
ominous than it is. It is a literary
focused podcast examining various excerpts from medieval primary sources along
with commentary. I was listening to the
prologue this morning where the author of that podcast (author, host – what is
the correct term for that?) said he was inspired by the book, Wisconsin DeathTrip. That book is a non-fiction work
published in 1973 that is based on a collection of late 19th century
articles, photographs, narrations from Wisconsin – most of them kind of “news
of the weird” but as a collection highlight the lives, thoughts, fears, etc. of
the people living at that time. I
haven’t read this book, but I think I’m going to because that sounds
fascinating.
So, after being inspired by a podcast inspired by a book, I
thought of a weekly blog serial taking the ideas of using print media from the
various locations and times of my ancestors to flesh out their lives.
I LOVE looking at old newspapers! While a great place to find a wealth of
information in your genealogical research, it also is a unique glimpse into the
lives of the people in that region and time.
Often our research takes us to the time before internet and computers,
before Skype and email, and usually before TV or telephones or radio. Local newspapers were the lifeblood of
information. It’s how you
learned what was going on in your community, your state, your country and the
world. Not only are their articles about
the main events happening, but also you find very mundane articles about who is
having dinner with who.
So, my plan is to have a weekly post called Old News - New Stories highlighting an
article, excerpt, advertisement, photograph, etc. from a publication which is
local to one of my ancestors during their time.
So, hopefully you will find it interesting and perhaps inspire some of
your own research into the lives and times to help bring your ancestors to life
(figuratively speaking).
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