Finding your family history in the news

Hit a dead end in your family history search? Newspapers may provide the resuscitation you’re looking for. Not only are they a prolific source of obituaries, but they can also provide insight into the

Slaves’ Forgotten Burial Sites, Marked Online

“The fact that they lie in these unmarked abandoned sites, it’s almost like that they are kind of vanishing from the American consciousness,” said Sandra Arnold, 50, a history student at the School of Professional and Continuing Studies at Fordham University.

The first doctor to reach President Abraham Lincoln after he was shot in a Washington theater rushed to his ceremonial box and found him paralyzed, comatose and leaning against his wife. Dr. Charles Leale ordered brandy and water to be brought immediately. Leale’s long-lost report of efforts to help the mortally wounded president, written just hours after his death, was discovered in a box at the National Archives late last month. View high resolution

The first doctor to reach President Abraham Lincoln after he was shot in a Washington theater rushed to his ceremonial box and found him paralyzed, comatose and leaning against his wife. Dr. Charles Leale ordered brandy and water to be brought immediately.

Leale’s long-lost report of efforts to help the mortally wounded president, written just hours after his death, was discovered in a box at the National Archives late last month.

npr: Three years ago, a Chicago man found historic documents in an abandoned house and took them to a rare books dealer. The papers and books belonged to Richard T. Greener, a 19th century black intellectual, who was the first African-American to graduate from Harvard University. (via Discovery Sparks Interest In Forgotten Black Scholar : NPR) Photo: Cheryl Corley/NPR View high resolution

npr:

Three years ago, a Chicago man found historic documents in an abandoned house and took them to a rare books dealer. The papers and books belonged to Richard T. Greener, a 19th century black intellectual, who was the first African-American to graduate from Harvard University. (via Discovery Sparks Interest In Forgotten Black Scholar : NPR)

Photo: Cheryl Corley/NPR

(Reblogged from npr)

Free access to virtually all administrative and strategic docs relating to US ops in the European Theater during WWII

How to Find Cool Stuff in the Newly-Released 1940 Census Data, or, Cyberstalking Your Grandparents

The Census Bureau just released reams of data from the 1940 U.S. Census online (the website’s been up and down all day; if it doesn’t work, try later), and you are going to spend the next hour or so tooling around on the website. I know because I just did it myself.

(Source: fold3.com)

futurejournalismproject:

The Memory Salvage Project

When Japanese defense forces cleared debris from the 2011 tsunami, they came across 750,000 photographs that they collected and saved.

Now a group of volunteers called the Memory Salvage Project is cleaning and restoring each photo, one by one.

Images: Stills from a video by the Discovery Channel. Click through to watch.

Select an image to embiggen.

(Reblogged from futurejournalismproject)

Back in the '40s ...

1940 census data will be released April 2. Take a look at life in the ’40s, and how it compares to today.

How Green Was My Surname; Via Ireland, a Chapter in the Story of Black America

So many African-Americans have Irish-sounding last names — Eddie Murphy, Isaac Hayes, Mariah Carey, Dizzy Gillespie, Toni Morrison, H. Carl McCall — that you would think that the long story of blacks and Irish coming together would be well documented. You would be wrong.