{"id":18197,"date":"2016-12-01T11:52:13","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T16:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=18197"},"modified":"2017-01-26T16:08:32","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T21:08:32","slug":"genealogy-tips-researching-your-ancestors-storm-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/genealogy-tips-researching-your-ancestors-storm-experiences.html","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy Tips: Researching Your Ancestors\u2019 Storm Experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Mary Harrell-Sesniak shows how old newspapers can tell us about the major storms, especially hurricanes, that our ancestors experienced. Mary is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a hurricane! It was a hurricane!<\/p>\n

Having been through Hurricane Wilma (2005) in South Florida and Hurricane Ike (2008) in Texas and now Hurricane Matthew (2016) in Florida, I wondered about my ancestors \u2013 chances are many of them were affected by similar storms.<\/p>\n

To satisfy my curiosity, I went sailing into the Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> at GenealogyBank to see if any of my ancestors weathered such great storms as we had. As I descend from early New Englanders and some seafaring families, the East coast \u2013 with its connection to the sea \u2013 was an obvious choice for me to search. What I found was interesting. Tales of survival and shipwrecks abound.<\/p>\n

Perhaps one of your ancestors\u2019 experiences can be found in old newspapers!<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: aftermath of Galveston, Texas, hurricane of 1900. Credit: Griffith & Griffith; U.S. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finding Historical Reports<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you search storm reports on the Web, you soon find that 1851 is a critical date. The Hurricane Research Division of NOAA has a chart of Continental United States Hurricane Impacts\/Landfalls<\/p>\n

1851-2015. See http:\/\/www.aoml.noaa.gov\/hrd\/hurdat\/All_U.S._Hurricanes.html<\/a><\/p>\n

But what about storms from earlier dates? That\u2019s when a collection of old newspapers can really help your research.<\/p>\n

Long before we started naming storms, there were hurricanes \u2013 lots of them. We know them only by their dates and locations. But as we all know, historical newspapers are the main source to learn what happened in the past.<\/p>\n

Look past the obvious when doing your searches.<\/p>\n

My first query was for the obvious seafaring reports, but I soon learned to look past that assumption.<\/p>\n

For example, a snowstorm \u2013 reported in a letter extract published in a 1779 newspaper \u2013 resulted in an uncommonly high tide and the loss of 2\/3 of Nantucket\u2019s sheep. Such a loss would have affected the local food supply, as well as the islanders\u2019 ability to make clothing and blankets from wool.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Independent Ledger (Boston, Massachusetts), 25 January 1779, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tales of Survival<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the prevalence of unpredictable storms, captains and crew had to plan how they\u2019d survive an unexpected event \u2013 and so it\u2019s interesting to read this 1722 newspaper article about how various British ships that had \u201csince come up\u201d got through a recent hurricane.<\/p>\n

Some drove their vessels onto shore \u2013 and others cut their masts and rode out the storms at sea. The newspaper reports:<\/p>\n