Weekly Planner: Seek Out New Reading Materials

girl reading outside.jpgWith weather warming up here in the Midwestern United States, I seek out any excuse to go outside and enjoy the weather. Check out bookstores–new and used, online and off–or your local library in search of titles that will help you learn more about the times and places in which your ancestors lived. Then make some time for a relaxing read in the park, on the porch, or in your favorite comfy chair. You never know when the knowledge you gain from books will come into play in your family history—and it’s a great way to enjoy the day.

One thought on “Weekly Planner: Seek Out New Reading Materials

  1. I have always loved reading old history books and newspapers.
    When I first started doing family research I was writing memories and family stories. I found that I wanted more information on what the times were like when my grandfather Chandler’s grandparents traveled from Illiois to Kansas. I went to my local library to the Kansas section. It was really getting time for me to pick up my husband from work, but I JUST HAD to look at ‘one’ more book. As usual, I started from the back–you never know, there might be an Index!–but there wasn’t. I knew I had to leave, but I tried to quickly scan the pages for anything. Then a word here, a phrase there…light bulbs were trying to go off in my head…Then Page 88, Wow, a picture I had grown up with. My grandfather, his brother, sisters, and father, with a picture of the mother resting on the floor in front of them all. I could hardly contain my excitement when I picked up my husband about 5 minutes late, showing him the book as he drove home.
    It took me about 2 months to find the author in Bellingham, Washington. He was my mother’s cousin.
    He, too, was anxious to ‘meet’ his long-lost Kansas cousins.
    What wonderful exchange of phone calls and letters. He even had the ring made in 1883 by an Indian chief.
    What a shame my mother and her sister had already passed away when this took place, but he did get to talk to my uncle for a short time.
    My second experience involved my father’s mother. While searching newspaper microfilm for an obituary, I found on the front page of one, a rather long article about my paternal grandmother. What interesting reading.
    I finally put in a notebook, photocopies of many 1,2,up to several lines of newspaper articles, some as early as 1860’s, written about other family members and titled it OUR FAMILIES IN THE NEWS.
    Frances

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