I fell down a rabbit hole early this morning. I've been lost for many, many hours....
Good News -
It was not a random search for a maybe-gggrandfather. It was a new-to-me, very rich, single-site, newspaper search for my two paternal Aunts. (They are in my current GDO working group.)
Bad News -
I *did not* open my research log first.... Just was reminded of the site, and went there. Mea Culpa. (First morning of a short vacation, and wasn't in 'work mode' yet. Not a good excuse, but a reason.)
Good News -
I kept notes on all search terms and will be hitting the research log heavily in just a moment. Really!
Bad News -
Although I got them all into Evernote, I quit fully tagging them at about hour 2.... But I did keep single, consistent tags for each aunt, and titled the notes properly, so I can easily go tag them more completely. And I noted the source site on each note. Off to tag them properly. Right after I hit the research log....
Good News -
I have certainly done an exhaustive search of that site! One pass rule....
The Really Good News -
How little I knew!! And how many things I thought I knew were wrong or skewed! And what finds!! Including photos from the 1930s and the 1960s. And, by the way, if you want to find newspaper mentions of someone, reach back in time and talk them into being a school teacher. Readers always wanted to see their kids' names in print, so "school news" was a big thing. And the teachers came along with that. Yay!
And the Good-Bad News -
Now I have to do the work of filling out the research logs and finishing the tagging process. I'll source and cite when I start entering, but the first two need to be done today.
Thanks, http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html !
My Aunt Esther (Peck) Brooks, the school teacher. (35 various articles, 4 photos, and many corrections and additions to what I thought I knew....
Gotta love newspapers!!! Congratulations on all the finds. I hope you're making good progress with notes, tags, and your research log. It's so easy to get on a roll and miss one step in the process, but it sounds like you've got it all under control.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nancy. Yes, I was good. Got the research log entries for both of them, and the related husband of Esther, the longer-term NY Aunt, done shortly after I posted, and got the to-dos in, too.
ReplyDeleteAnd got the missed tagging done.
I knew if I thought "Ah, tomorrow....", it wouldn't happen. I do know me!
"Under control", maybe not so much. Working hard to develop good habits, yes.
Great, fun post! I loved it! And I love newspapers (I found out so very much about my great grand aunt that way , a missionary to China, there during two revolutions and the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong -- and the local newspaper seemed to use her as an excuse to do foreign relations news re China. So very cool!
ReplyDelete