5 Interesting History Posts You May Have Missed

In our  hurry to find the answer to our research questions we, as genealogists and family historians, sometimes forget about history. 

Which seems kind of funny. 

But what I mean is that while trying to reconstruct our family's history, we forget that our ancestors were not living in a bubble. Certainly, they were making their own history, but they were a part of a bigger history as well -- in their neighborhoods, in their towns, in their regions, in their countries, and in their world. 

And genealogists who have been around the block a few times know this. That's why you'll see them consulting things like county histories, social history books, newspapers, and the like to gain more knowledge about the time and place a person lived which invariably leads to more research clues and avenues to investigate.

To get you in the groove of thinking about history for genealogy and family history here's a list of 5 posts I've read recently that are history-based. Some are just an image that made me think. Some are outrageous. Some are mildly entertaining. And some horrific. Why not? It's the weekend. Let's mix it up, shall we? And maybe it will inspire you to research or perhaps blog about your ancestors in a different way. Let's put the history back into family history and genealogy. Or maybe you just like history in general. I dunno. But? It's History Saturday for Genealogy.

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5 History-Related Posts that Caught My Eye This Week

• Connecticut lawmakers write Wright Brothers out of history as 'first in flight' by Nina Golgowski from nydailynews.com. ~ Will the state of North Carolina change their license plates? And shows how mighty the pen really is, eh? But I really need to take a look at all the information before I can make a conclusion if Connecticut lawmakers are correct. I just don't trust politicians to get history right. What do you think?

• So. Thorough research {and I'm assuming it is thorough} solves the spy photo mystery. I'm totally not surprised. And? The story is fascinating. But I like these kinds of things. I'm biased. But what made me believe this conclusion more and question the one about the Wright brothers more? I dunno. {But says something about how we not only view history but how we view information that can be evidence to base our conclusions on.} ~ The spy photo that fooled us: Historian unravels mystery over picture said to be an elusive slave turned Union spy during civil war by Jessica Jerreat from dailymail.co.uk.
  

• I remember learning about what started World War I in school so I almost didn't read it. But this post was so detailed about this single event in history that affected so many -- including my own family tree. {Both my grandfathers served in World War I.} It's a well-written piece and well-worth a read of the details of that fateful day.  Makes you think about how other events and how they got started. Makes you start thinking, period. Do you have any ancestors that served in World War I? ~ A Look Back at the Spark that Ignited a World War by Peter Ede on info.acis.com.
  

• Colonial America's Oldest Unsolved Murder by Linton Weeks on npr.org ~ Apparently this one went from a cold case to a closed case. Just took a while. Have you encountered any duels in your family history? I haven't. But when I do, you'll hear about it. I promise.
  

• Speaking of losing teeth {You had to have read about the colonial unsolved murder to get that.}, looks like I missed the opportunity to own this lovely piece of history. Anyone have dentists in the family tree? Perhaps they used this for learning purposes. Vintage Nightmare Teeth by Cory Doctorow from boingboing.net.

~Caroline