Invisible Ancestors: Ideas & Strategies for Recreating Their Stories

Digital Resources from the Library of Congress

Many ancestors - early immigrants and pioneers, slaves, women, native peoples, and others - do not have compiled biographies. They are invisible in the historical record, except through the census or other data collection entities. Where there are gaps in their history, the stories can be told through early travelogues, letters, diaries, other texts and printed ephemera, photographs and other visual media, and maps.

These provide visual and textual descriptions and first-person accounts of an individual or a town’s life beyond lineage and vital statistics. Although perhaps not directly related to the subject being researched, the items serve as touchstones, supplying the context from which the forgotten stories of individuals or towns can be retold.

~ Photographs & Other Visual Materials (posters, prints, political cartoons) ~

· Occupational photographs (daguerreotypes, ethnographic studies) provide images of tools of the trade and clothing worn.

· Collections of items on national events, such as wars, elections, and social movements will have insightful details about their locations. National and international events happen in someone’s home town.

· Farm Security Administration photos document life in small towns, including images of local buildings, architectural styles, vehicles, and local celebrations across the nation during the Great Depression. Signs in windows provide menus, prices, and items of current interest.

· Documentary photograph series such as the Historic American Building Survey capture images, drawings, and history of buildings, their inhabitants, and locales.

· Political cartoons reflect societal attitudes about people, stereotypes, and current events.

Photographs & Print Collection List, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?format=Photograph

Prints & Photographs Online Catalog - http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html

Prints & Photographs Division - http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/

~ Maps ~

· Panoramic Maps are hand drawn. Many show architecture, street names, businesses, churches, landmarks, industry and transportation. Their legends often provide names of churches, schools and other prominent items.

· Civil War maps can list regiments’ locations during battles, landowners’ names, and local landmarks that may have disappeared in the intervening years.

· Legends of historical maps can provide original names and locations of buildings, landmarks, etc. Helpful for items no longer in existence.

· Maps of the same location over time reveal the development of the town, including its architecture, changes in industry, and street name changes, extensions or relocations, or their disappearance..

· Fire insurance maps provide details of buildings, ownership, commerce, and residences.

Map Collection List, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=Maps

Geography & Map Division - http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/

~ Texts (diaries, life histories, travelogues, etc.) ~

· Towns no longer viable may be alive in writings.

· These provide a personal point of view of life at various times and in various locations. They can describe how a town’s events, celebrations, and activities affect them personally.

· Humor is culturally-specific and can be glimpsed in personal writings.

· Recipes reflect the quantity and type of foods available, tastes of the time period, and the socio-economic stature of the individual or family from which the recipe orginated.

Books, and Other Printed Texts Collection List, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?format=Printed+Work

Manuscript Collection List, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?format=Manuscript

Veterans History Project, Story Corps, American Folklife Center - http://www.loc.gov/folklife/

Manuscript Division - http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/

Rare Book & Special Collection Division - http://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/

~ Newspapers ~

· Local newspapers can provide information not normally found in typical graduation, birth, or death announcements through advertisements, and columns focused on recipe sharing, household hints, or advice.

· Letters to the editor could reveal a relative’s opinions and affiliations.

· National news and events may be reflected in the home-town exploits and adventures of its citizens, with more extensive descriptions than would occur in death announcements.

· Throughout, the news, columns, advertisements, and special features will reflect socio-economic concerns, attitudes, societal norms, and values.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers - http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/

Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/rotogravures/

The Stars and Stripes: American Soldiers’ Newspaper, 1918-1919, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sgphtml/sashtml/sashome.html

Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room, Serial and Government Record Division - http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/

~ Ephemera (flyers, circulars, menus, ballots, ticket schedules, etc.) ~

· Menus reflect the availability of various foodstuffs, ethnic groups resident in the area, relative economic prosperity, and the regional specialties and tastes of the inhabitants.

· Advertisements for home remedies will indicate the types of ills, diseases, and injuries of most concern and greatest frequency in a community.

· Various printed material will reflect what needs existed within the community, what items existed and were available for sale, the level of manufacturing in the area, and other indications of the job market, prosperity, and commerce in the area.

· Transportation schedules will provide a glimpse in the transportation modes available, the time required to travel, and prices, another indicator of the economic health of the community.

An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rbpehtml/

Advertising Collections List, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=Advertising

~ Media (sound recordings, motion pictures) ~

· Oral histories provide a sense of the dialects in various regions, language in use at the time, intonation patterns and attitudes that may not appear in text versions.

· Ethnographic studies capture aural and visual representations of everyday life that can only be imagined in textual descriptions.

· Early Edison films were actualities, films depicting life as it actually happened. The richness of detail and the unaffected nature of the persons filmed provide a rare glimpse into the everyday lives of people.

Performing Arts Encyclopedia, Performing Arts Division - http://www.loc.gov/performingarts/

Save Our Sounds, American Folklife Center - http://www.loc.gov/folklife/sos/

Sound Recordings Collections List, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?format=Sound+Recording

Motion Pictures Collections List, American Memory - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?format=Motion+Picture

~ Additional Resources ~

Local History & Genealogy Reading Room – http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/

Researchers Gateway Page – http://www.loc.gov/rr/

Global Gateway - http://international.loc.gov/intldl/intldlhome.html

Library of Congress – http://www.loc.gov