Treasures Introduction.
* Treasures Introduction.
Treasures Introduction:
Many different things can be called treasures, but here we are going to focus on those that are in written form, especially ones that were written and saved in the past. You are in the process of writing a photo-story and when you finish you will have a wonderful treasure. Has anyone ever written about the person in your photo before? You may be surprised what you may find. Treasures already written that can be added to your photo - story will give your project a deeper focus. The treasures section will give you a look at different types of written treasures. Read some of our family stories, journals, and letters written in the past. Discover how genealogy is a powerful resource and how to save your photo-story so it will become a treasure for the future. If you haven't already you may want to print out the worksheet "Treasures" from the Photo-Story Kit page.
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In the year 1954 Freda Wynn wrote a biographical sketch of her grandfather Frank White as a school project. You can imagine Freda's surprise when we, a team of girls who live 3000 miles apart that she did not know existed, contacted her and asked permission to post her school work from 46 years ago. My grandmother had a copy of this work from many years ago and had it stuck into the old photo box. Freda Wynn's (Vanselsow) school work has become a true family treasure.
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What could be more exciting than to sit down with an old book and suddenly come across personal history on your family. While digging through Grandmother's stuff there was a large spiral bound book titled "Oldtimers... Stories of Our Pioneers In The Cass And Crow Wing Lake Region" by Carl A. Zapffe. This book is crammed full of old photographs and stories from the past of the people of that area in Minnesota. Inside the cover of our copy it is signed "Collectors copy #18 of 100, To Charlotte Rogers, Carl Zapffe". As I read, I found myself drawn back in time. When I turned to page 126 to my surprise there was a photograph of Henrietta Simms (Harrison), my great great great grandmother. Here was also my great great grandfather Chauncey Clark. On page 128 I found my great grandfather Ben Clark. We have received permission to share a small part of this wonderful book with you here.
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By opening the pop out window below you can read a wonderful story as it was written in 1908 about Caroline Harrison and her father Benjamin R. Harrison. It appears on page 295 in the book, "An Illustrated History of Nobles County Minnesota" by Author P. Rose, published in 1908.
The Wild Girl of Nobles County.
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There are many places you can start looking for stories already written and the first place is with your family. If they have saved the photographs they may have saved some written treasures. You can check with a local historical society or historian for the area you are interested in.
Your next place to search is the web. There are genealogy research sites which will search written historical work archives with a name. With these you will have to determine if it is your family or not. Although some of the sites below are commercial sites they do offer some free services. The first two only focus on books. You can see our complete list of family history research sites on our Links & Resources page.
Everton Publishers :
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From the main page click on "Search 45,000 Books". This free service. This free sservice allows you to search with a family name or location. The titles, authors, and publishers are shown. Some of their other free services offered require you to register as a guest.GenealogyBookShop.com:
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This is an online book store but the free book search by family name or key word is good. Once you have a book title you can always check at your local library first.United States History Index State Historical Societies:
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Here you will find contact information for the State Historical Societies of all 50 states.Association of Personal Historians:
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The Association of Personal Historians is an organization whose members are dedicated to helping others preserve their personal histories and life stories.
Throughout history one of the best ways to get the latest news to people was through newspapers. On street corners throughout the world the ring of a young boy's voice could be heard calling, "Get your news, get your daily news." In the old days the headlines on a newspaper might have read "Crash, Down Goes the Stock Market." Today they may announce another school shooting. Depending on what era of history you are looking at, there have always been newspapers. Newspapers are great tools that can help you uncover many events from the past.
How do you find old newspapers? Your local library is your best bet. Many libraries have large collections of old newspapers and they will gladly show you how to search through back issues.
The library, however, isn't the only place that you can look for old newspapers. Many of your older relatives may have newspaper clippings and newspapers that they have saved. Fortunately, unlike the library's newspapers, these newspapers most likely have a family story behind why they were saved. Remember that newspapers are fragile documents of history, so photo copying the originals is a good idea. This way you can use the copies and not take a chance of ruining the originals.
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