Mar 05 2009
Searching Multiple Locations for Information on a Single Event (Part 1)
On Tuesday night, my sister’s team won during their second round of play at the state tournaments. They are now in the Elite 8, the top eight teams in the state for their division (AA). They play again on Saturday night in Rome.
Yes, I do actually have another genealogical point to make (plus, again with being the proud big sister). I received word after last Friday night’s game against Armuchee High School that one of my sister’s cousins by marriage had picked up a copy of the Rome newspaper the day after the game. He had bought this issue because of its coverage of the previous night’s game against our girls. Apparently, Armuchee disputed the game in some way; they thought our team had committed a foul at the end of the game, and were upset because they didn’t receive the corresponding foul shots (with the winning score 55 - 54 in our favor, those foul shots might have changed the outcome of the game).
Whatever the outcome of Armuchee’s protests might be (I haven’t heard anything further on it), this article did make me think a little about how we, as researchers, might overlook sources because they weren’t generated in the locale where a certain event took place. Naturally, a future researcher interested in that game would look in both The Clayton Tribune (our local paper) and The Rome News-Tribune (Armuchee’s local paper), as these are the most obvious sources to use. But what about other sources of information? Should said researcher check those? And how thorough should he or she be in searching for sources on this single event?
Taking the game above as an example, let’s look at other possible sources for information. The first one that comes to mind is the state’s paper of record, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which is sure to have, at the very least, a record of the game’s scores. It could possibly contain an article on the game itself, if it was an important game. (The fact that Armuchee’s loss was an upset, plus the dispute over the foul at the end of the game, might be enough to warrant such attention.)
In this day and age of multi-media presentations, it would be wise to also look for video and radio coverage of the game. What local radio stations would have kept tapes of the game? Would any of the local news stations have sent reporters with cameras to cover that event? Such footage or commentary might be useful for play-by-play coverage of the game, or for the details given on the players, coaches, or spectators.
The schools or school districts might be another place to look for information on this game, depending on the research focus. Would the school still have records of the coaches and students who participated in the game? Possibly. The sources might be banners with the team’s record embroidered on it, a trophy or plaque, a game ball signed by the girls (probably with their numbers next to their signatures), scrapbooks, videos of the games, jerseys worn by the players and kept for posterity, and so forth. This would be in addition to any actual student or teacher records (like grades or classes for the students, and employment records for the coaches), student newspapers, and yearbooks. Don’t forget the cheerleaders! There might be separate records for them that would detail their participation in the game, and thus add to the overall knowledge base.
Athletic boosters clubs might also be a good source for information. Our Athletic Boosters sponsored a pep bus to that game, and there might be a record of the students who chose to attend or financial records associated with the trip that the Boosters were required to keep, either through their charter or by law.
And, of course, the personal records: diaries or journals kept by those who participated in or attended the game, or anything else (like souvenirs) that might have been passed down from generation to generation through the family. The local historical society might have mementos, as might members of the local community whose ancestors attended the event, kept in scrapbooks, photo albums, or in another such storage device.
The direction of such a search depends heavily on what the research focus is. Regardless, a thorough search should always be made whenever possible. The two local papers’ coverage of that game, for instance, would yield two different recountings, probably that were biased in favor of the local team (as far as the point of view goes, meaning The Clayton Tribune would have few comments or opinions from the opposing team’s players, coaches, or fans). The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, on the other hand, might have a more balanced view of the game and include statements and game moments from both teams. If that possible future researcher didn’t look in all three newspapers, however, he or she might miss important aspects of the game, and so their research would be incomplete.
Such completeness is always the desired outcome of our research. It is difficult to formulate an informed opinion or hypothesis if we don’t haven’t enough data, and the only way to obtain sufficient data is to do as thorough a search as possible, through every record or record source we can think of. At some point, we do have to say, ok, I’ve searched through everything I can find and move on to another problem, but we should also keep our eyes open to possible sources of information.
Which brings me to my final point for this post: the farther back in time we go with our research, the fewer sources we have to search. Today, each individual is associated with reams of paperwork and other material from which future genealogists can draw to reconstruct our lives. Our ancestors, on the other hand, often did their best to avoid leaving such a trail, or so it sometimes seems. By limiting ourselves to one locale, by not branching out and thinking outside the box, so to speak, we might be hindering our efforts to solve a particular research problem.
But Dawn, I hear you say, why should I search for my ancestors in other locations when I know they always lived in one place? In a future post, I will answer this question using historical examples of “outside the box” thinking that have helped expand my own ancestral quest.
