BACKTRACKING
Documenting History
by
Terry Hogan
One
of the many problems of genealogy and trying to be a genealogist is that
history gets in the way. Historical
tangents, like briars, ensnarl you. You find yourself researching an
interesting historic event that might add color to your family history. Or worse yet, it just might be an
interesting event that has no justifiable, plausible connection to your family
research. This can be called a
temporary distraction, a tangent, or just poor self discipline, depending upon
who is making the characterization (you or your spouse). But it can be fun.
One
of my more recent side investigations has been old stock certificates. I bought my first two at a rare book
sale in Indianapolis. One of them
was a CB&Q stock certificate issued in the mid-1800s. It was still bearing the Civil War tax
stamp that was imposed by the North to raise money for the war. Like all taxes, it didnÕt end with the
war.
Stock
certificates are collected for various reasons, I guess. Some folks collect them as items of
art. Some of the printing on the
older stocks is fantastic. Some
show old wood burning or coal burning locomotives steaming across the plain,
with a river in the background showing a steamboat. There may be a cow or two
grazing in the scene as well.
Others,
like me, tend to collect stock because of a family or geographical or local
history connection. For example
the CB&Q stock was issued over a number of years, in different
denominations, different colors, and may have a variety of revenue tax stamps
applied to them. If you are lucky,
you might also find a famous signature on them, such as Forbes, who was
President of the CB&Q.
If bitten by the bug, you can even expand the collection to include
early stock of railroads that the CB&Q ÒconsumedÓ during the rapid 1800Õs
expansion period. An example would be the old Burlington and Missouri River Railroad,
or the relatively short-lived Galesburg and Rio Railroad that was only around for a few years before it got
consumed. The latter was a name that I had not heard of until I saw unissued
1860Õs stock for sale on EBay. A
quick internet search confirmed it was real.
If
you are prudent, patient and diligent, you can buy these beautiful and old
historic documents for just a few dollars. Or if you are independently wealthy and impatient you can
buy them from a stock certificate retailer and pay about 10 times the price you
would pay with more patience and work at internet auction sites.
Of
course, once you start, it is hard to contain yourself. You start seeing really old railroad
stock certificates for other railroads that may have been involved in the Civil
War or have some other inherent attraction to you. Collecting can be a difficult thing to control. Once we were
Òhunters and gathersÓ and the desire still lies dormant, ready to spring
forward and lead you to the Òpurchase nowÓ button.
But
donÕt forget to look around home and to talk with your relatives. Old family photos and old family
keepsakes are not likely to be found on the internet. They are more likely to
be found with parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. Now they may not be very willing to
give away or to sell these old family relics, but they may be willing to let
you photograph them. And document
the stories about them – When? Where? Why? How? What kind of? Ask now or regret latter.
Also
remember that some photos may not have to be old to be special and worth
keeping with your family history.
For example, there is a photo that my mother took of my father and I about
ten years ago. We were standing on
a bluff, looking over a lake in northern Minnesota. The photo is important to
me. Our backs were to the camera.
It was as if we were looking to the future. It was our last trip to Minnesota together. Minnesota was an important part of his
life. Such items photos can
provide insight for great grandchildren who never had the change to know him.
Documentation
can, of course go beyond paper. If
you have an ancestor who was a bank president or owned a company, then
documentation could include the collecting of ÒstuffÓ related to that
company. For example, I collect miscellaneous
items related to Lucky Boy Bakery and the People Trust and Bank Company, both
of which used to occupy GalesburgÕs once busy downtown. Neither exists now.
The
advantage of collecting paper documents such as old stock certificates is that
they are easily incorporated in the family history. But with digital cameras, a good close-up photo of an item,
such as an old marketing item for a company, can easily be dropped into the
family history, as well.
Now
at the risk of sounding like an old guy, I must comment on the new risk to
genealogists. That is the fast
evolution of information technology.
Despite all the above comments about digital photos and the electronic
ease of writing family histories, given electronic software and lightning quick
computers, be cautious. Remember the family photos on Beta video tapes? They werenÕt a good choice for long
term storage. The same is true now
of VHS tapes; the old large floppies and now the small floppies. How long are CDs and DVDs going to be
around?
But
paper has been around for a long time.
At some point, drawn the line; print it out; and make copies. New data
may always come, but donÕt trust existing technology to be the long term
storage of your thousands of hours of research.
Paper
documents have stood the test of time.