Week 35 Free Space

“I intended for this to be a week for you to choose whatever you want to write about. (Though that’s true every week!) But also feel free to riff off of the theme — maybe an ancestor who went West for land, going to a family vacation spot, or a bingo-playing ancestor? Have fun with this theme! Feel free to post your links and stories in the comments.” this weeks prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks by Amy Johnson Crow.

I enjoy looking through old newspapers. I find the articles to be fascinating little time capsules of what life was like at the time they were written. One subscription I enjoy is Newspapers.com. Most of the time I look for articles about a specific person, event or place. Today I looked under the heading Topics. The Home page has four selections at the top; Search, Papers, Clippings and Topics. Search is what I use 99% of the time. I have never really explored the Topics section until today.

I found 34 topics and under each topic there are subdivisions to give you more in depth choice. The topics are: ‘Behind the Headlines of History’ podcast, A New Nation, Age of American Imperialism, American Civil War Era, American Revolution, Arts & Entertainment, Black History, Civil Rights, Cold War, Crafts & Patterns, Crimes & Mysteries, End of the 20th Century, Famous People, Food, Great Depression, Holidays, Industrial & Gilded Age, Native American History, Natural Disasters, Progressive Era, Quirky & Curious, Reconstruction, Roaring Twenties, Science, Space Exploration, Sports, US Presidents, US States, Vietnam War Era, Westward Expansion, Womens History, World History, World War I, World War II.

I am trying to decide what food to cook for Thanksgiving this week so food was on my mind. I clicked the Food topic first. So many choices! I chose pumpkin pie, there is a ‘pie recipes’ category too but pumpkin pie evidently has enough recipes to deserve it’s own category. One had a cheese crust, I’m not sure if I would like that with pumpkin pie but it sounds like a great crust for an apple pie. There are eggless, dairy free and traditional. Many have added ingredients from marshmallow to raisins to pineapple! Yes you read that right, someone added pineapple to a pumpkin pie. Not sure I would be that adventurous but here is the recipe if you would like to try. Could be the talk of Thanksgiving. I have found relatives of my own submitted recipes to the local paper. It’s interesting to see what they were cooking back than.

The Science category caught my eye next. I looked at several. Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and George Washington Carver were some of the people in this section. I discovered George Washington Carver attended the same college I went to, a few years apart but fun all the same. It was called Iowa State College when he went to school in Ames, Iowa. There are a number of interesting articles about this outstanding man.

I am a quilter/crafter so the Crafts and Patterns category appealed to me too. There were only two sections under this heading, Heirloom Quilt Patterns and Vintage Crochet Patterns. There are many patterns under each heading though so if you enjoy either of these leisure activities this might be a good fit for you. I have found relatives who shared my love of sewing as a job or by entering exhibits in their county fair. Have you looked for your crafty relatives yet.

Quirky and Curious in Newspapers sounded like entertaining reading so I had to peak. One of the choices is Weird News, who can resist that choice. There is an article about a corpse that spoiled her wake by refusing to stay dead! This would be a fun story to add to your family tree. Another was about an anti-noise bill that would bann eating popcorn and peanuts at the movie theater in Oregon. Did that pass? I didn’t look for a follow up. The one I added here almost sounds like something that could happen today even though this article is from 1906.

All of the historical sections appealed to me because I had ancestors in each of those Wars, ancestors who lived through the Great Depression, my grandmother was a suffragette. I remember the moon landing so those papers brought back some memories for me. I think the newspapers help me to have a better understanding of life at the time my ancestor was alive. They broaden my view of the obstacles they may have overcome or dealt with in their lives.

I also like NewspaperArchive.com and GenealogyBank.com and Digital Archives of Belle Plaine Community Library. Do you have a favorite newspaper site? What have you found that surprised you?