I have long felt that school provides a poor overview of history. For the most part, we learned a condensed version of history which glossed over, if not out right misses, the real reasons and events which built up to or culminated in the major events we review in brief in the classrooms. How has that affected our approach as family history researchers? What history have we ignored, assuming it is unrelated to our genealogical studies? The following article from Tampa Bay Online is an excellent reminder of the value of history, and history books, to genealogical research:
Take research beyond genealogy reference books
By SHARON TATE MOODY | Special correspondent
Published: March 25, 2012
Most of us grew up with school history books that told us about famous people such as Susan B. Anthony, George Custer, Benjamin Franklin and Helen Keller. Few of us ever read about our own ancestors, though.
Perhaps that’s why so many genealogists walk right past the history shelves in the library or bookstore. There’s no way our poor dirt-farming great-grandpas got into any of those books, right?
Important lesson: History wasn’t made by the rich and famous. They may get most of the credit and attention, but if we dig deeply enough, we likely will find feats in which our mostly-unheralded ancestors participated.
As we work backward through the family lineage, we can trace the trails our ancestors traveled, from New England and the coastal south to all points west. As we discover each stop on their pilgrimages, we must study the history of the area.
Finding mention of ancestors in history books written after the 1980s is pretty easy because most of those had indexes. But the older area histories usually didn’t. Many of us groan when we find these index-less books; some of us even toss them aside.
But in doing that, we fail to learn about what happened while they were in the area. Floods, Indian uprisings, crime sprees and many day-to-day activities affected their lives. Even if historical accounts don’t mention an ancestor by name, it is important to study these events.