{"id":3589,"date":"2013-05-15T14:16:48","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T14:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=3589"},"modified":"2022-12-12T15:46:29","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T20:46:29","slug":"how-the-5-ws-favorites-in-newspapers-can-help-genealogists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/how-the-5-ws-favorites-in-newspapers-can-help-genealogists.html","title":{"rendered":"How the 5 Ws & FAV(orites) in Newspapers Can Help Genealogists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Scott Phillips explains how he adds his own personal touch to the \u201c5 Ws\u201d (Who, What, When, Where & Why) of newspaper journalism to enliven his family history research. Scott is a genealogical historian and owner of Onward To Our Past\u00ae genealogy services.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Recently I wrote here on the GenealogyBank.com blog<\/a> about how much I love the 5 Ws<\/a> (Who, What, When, Where & Why) of good, high-quality newspaper reporting for my genealogy and family history work. There is little better than finding an interesting article in one of the thousands of GenealogyBank.com newspapers that contains your ancestor\u2019s name, and then topping that off by finding that the reporter adhered to the newspaperwoman\/man\u2019s mantra of the 5 Ws. Most decidedly, to me, it just doesn\u2019t get much better than this! However, since none of us genealogy-crazy folks ever leave something well enough alone, I like to add my own FAVs to the 5 Ws. Now, while I know this won\u2019t win me a Pulitzer or anything, my FAVs do help my family search efforts.<\/p>\n

My FAV(orites) are this: F<\/strong>un, A<\/strong>dventure, and V<\/strong>alue.<\/p>\n

First, FUN<\/strong>: One of my key precepts as a genealogist is that we must always keep the fun in our work. If we hope to attract the interest of others to genealogy and family history, one of the easiest ways to do this is by making it fun! Whenever I am doing genealogy research in newspapers I am reminded that my father always began his day, every day, with the funny pages of the newspaper. Although a businessman through-and-through, he said the news and business of the day could wait while he started his day with a smile and a chuckle. I have wonderful memories of my dad in his crisp white shirt and tie, coffee mug in hand, and seeing his eyes sparkling as he laughed at the funnies. So it is from these vivid memories that I keep the fun in my genealogy in a variety of ways. One of which is that whenever I am searching old newspapers I make sure to check the funnies.<\/p>\n

If nothing else I enjoy seeing how some of my favorites have changed over the years, like good old Dagwood Bumstead of the \u201cBlondie\u201d comic; I found this example in a 1938 newspaper. That day\u2019s comic featured a coal-fired furnace (like my grandparents\u2019 home had), old-fashioned telephone switchboard (which I recall from my old hometown), and much more all in one comic. Times like this give me what I call \u201ca minute vacation\u201d and the fun refreshes me for the work ahead.<\/p>\n

\""Blondie"<\/a>
Richmond Times Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia), 11 December 1938, page 115<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Second, ADVENTURE<\/strong>: I also love discovering in old newspaper articles the adventures that our ancestors had. As a matter of fact, just two days ago I was beginning my genealogy research on the Fortelka family branch in our family tree when I discovered Frank Fortelka aka \u201cThe Bohemian Cyclone\u201d!<\/p>\n

\"Pugilism:<\/a>
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 11 April 1895, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not only did I get to follow The Cyclone\u2019s career as a boxer, but also his career after that when he became a member of the \u201cthin blue line\u201d as a police officer for the city of Cleveland, Ohio. I also learned that The Cyclone was known to use his fisticuffs abilities against ne\u2019re-do-wells in that city, often being reported to take on groups of twenty or more, successfully subdue them, and bring them to justice\u2014with only his fists! Wow, talk about a real-life adventure and superhero! Then I got treated to his photograph<\/a>, along with his wife\u2019s picture for good measure, in a 1947 newspaper article about the golden wedding anniversary of The Bohemian Cyclone and his wife.<\/p>\n

\"Ex-Boxer<\/a>
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 26 October 1947, page 16<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Third, VALUE<\/strong>: Another of my mantras in my genealogy work is to capture the persona, not just the data, of my ancestors. I believe that nothing adds more value to my family tree quite like the insight into the real persona of my ancestors that I gain from newspaper articles. I find great value in newspapers\u2019 photographs, in-depth information, stories, and articles on the times my ancestors lived, and much, much more. The last time I looked at my family tree I found that I have more than 320 newspaper articles attached to the profiles of my family members and ancestors! Now that<\/em> is what I call adding value. Of course, while I love the value these impart to me, I am even more thrilled when their value is realized by others.<\/p>\n

For instance, whenever I get to share a newly discovered newspaper account about one of our ancestors with my 93-year-old Mother I get to see the happiness in her eyes and hear the excitement in her voice. Now that, my friends, is adding real value!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
From the author’s collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So tell me\u2014what do you<\/em> add to the 5 Ws in newspaper journalism as you work on your family tree?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scott Phillips explains how he adds the \u201c5 Ws\u201d (Who, What, When, Where & Why) of newspaper journalism to enliven his family history research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[3410,3967,3974,3965,1167,3970,3969,3966,3964,1129,1658,2233,1656,1762,3972,3971,3968,465,2191,3963,5354,1761,5366,2020,27,539,1091,3314,5430,5435,3973,4537,5457],"class_list":["post-3589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-5-ws","tag-blondie","tag-boxers","tag-bumstead","tag-cleveland","tag-comic-strips","tag-comics","tag-dagwood","tag-dagwood-bumstead","tag-family","tag-family-history-2","tag-family-research","tag-family-tree","tag-father","tag-fortelka","tag-frank-fortelka","tag-funnies","tag-historical-newspapers","tag-history","tag-journalism","tag-life","tag-mother","tag-news","tag-newspaper-archives","tag-newspapers","tag-oh","tag-ohio","tag-phillips","tag-research","tag-scott","tag-the-bohemian-cyclone","tag-white","tag-wife"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3589"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88321,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3589\/revisions\/88321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}