Newsworthy

 

How many of you have been admonished about life being more than the two dates that appear on your tombstone, that "it's the dash that's important?"

Trite, yes.  Nonetheless, true.  The stuff that happens between your date of birth and your date of death are certainly more interesting to most consumers of biographical information.

Sometimes, we genealogists forget that as we obsessively track down and record names, vital dates, geographic jurisdictions, and source citations.   We NEEED these to make our nice little pedigree charts and family group sheets look neat and tidy.

But, if that's all we focus on, we miss the whole point and the real joy of genealogy, which is learning about who our ancestors really were.

What were their day-to-day lives like compared to our own?  How did they confront life's challenges, much less unusual circumstances like the one we are currently facing with the COVID-19 pandemic?  Can we learn anything from what they went thru to apply to our own lives?

That's why I love newspapers.com.  This site has really helped me flesh-out my family's unique story.  

Some of the best items I've discovered would hardly be considered "newsworthy" by most folks' standards--like the article above that I snipped about my dad's run-in with a black widow spider at age 11.  But these little details certainly mean something to me, and hopefully will to future generations.  

At least that's what I keep telling myself as I digitally "snip" tidbits like this until the wee hours of the morning . . . 

Happy hunting!