{"id":3875,"date":"2013-06-18T16:10:50","date_gmt":"2013-06-18T16:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=3875"},"modified":"2013-06-18T16:10:50","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T16:10:50","slug":"finding-my-relatives-story-the-search-for-madge-e-richmond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/finding-my-relatives-story-the-search-for-madge-e-richmond.html","title":{"rendered":"Finding My Relative\u2019s Story: The Search for Madge E. Richmond"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day I asked myself: what can I realistically find about my relatives in GenealogyBank? How many details about my family can I discover?<\/p>\n

So I decided to find out by searching GenealogyBank\u2019s historical newspaper archives<\/a> for a family member we know little about: Madge E. Richmond (1866-1942).<\/p>\n

\"collage<\/a>
Collage of newspaper articles about Madge Richmond<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her Career as a Teacher<\/strong><\/p>\n

Madge Richmond was a teacher for 25 years; almost all of those years were spent teaching at the Technical High School in Springfield, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Photo: Technical High School, Springfield, Massachusetts. Credit: Temposenzatempo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beyond that we had the family traditions of her kindness, intellect and work ethic. We knew little else about her.<\/p>\n

The family has two pictures of her\u2014one as a young woman.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Credit: Portrait in possession of the family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The other picture of her was taken in the years after her retirement.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Credit: Portrait in possession of the family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Madge Richmond was an \u201cordinary person\u201d\u2014your typical relative. She was beloved by the family and the school community where she worked, but otherwise she was an unknown person to the world at large.<\/p>\n

What could I hope to discover about her in GenealogyBank?<\/p>\n

Would newspapers have published anything about such a plain, ordinary person?<\/p>\n

All of our relatives are special to us but\u2014for the most part\u2014unknown beyond our family and friends.<\/p>\n

The Search for My Relative Begins<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my initial search on GenealogyBank I used only my relative\u2019s name: Madge Richmond.<\/p>\n

That first and last name search produced 331 record matches\u2014far too many for me to sort through them all.<\/p>\n

So I decided to try searching for my relative again, this time narrowing my search to only the newspapers in the New England states.<\/p>\n

I did this simply by checking all the New England states on GenealogyBank\u2019s newspaper search page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Selecting<\/a>
Selecting New England states on GenealogyBank’s newspaper search page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That refined search produced 80 search results.<\/p>\n

OK\u2014I can work with that. I began looking through the records.<\/p>\n

Bang.<\/p>\n

The very first record I opened was about was about her! Even better, the article included a photograph<\/a> of her! It was her retirement notice in the local newspaper.<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 19 June 1936, page 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Look at the last line in this newspaper article, a quote from the dedication of that year\u2019s Tech School yearbook:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo Madge Eleanor Richmond, whose steady poise, clear vision and wise judgment have distinguished her service in this school and have marked every association with faculty and students.\u201d<\/p>\n

So\u2014now I know her middle name was \u201cEleanor.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d always assumed her middle name was Eleanor\u2014but now I have proof.<\/p>\n

The old newspaper article explained that Madge was the head of the mathematics department, one of the most popular teachers at the school, and was retiring after teaching for nearly 25 years.<\/p>\n

As I looked through more of the search results, I found dozens of mentions of Madge in news articles about school events, lists of faculty and the like. All of these stories, clues and little details I found in the newspaper archives<\/a> helped me learn about a relative I didn\u2019t know very well.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the newspaper articles I found in GenealogyBank that gave me more of Madge\u2019s life story.<\/p>\n

These historical newspaper articles have given me a more complete picture of Madge\u2019s life\u2014and a very nice portrait of her.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the key moments and events from her life, as captured in newspaper articles.<\/p>\n

30 June 1911<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"newspaper<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMiss Madge Eleanor Richmond was also elected teacher of mathematics in the technical high school. She has been a teacher in the Dover (N.H.) high school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Great. I knew she was a teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts, but I didn\u2019t know that she was also a teacher in Dover, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

17 April 1914<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"newspaper<\/a>
Springfield Union (Springfield, Massachusetts), 20 April 1914, page 9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OK\u2014here\u2019s another fact new to me: Madge was principal of Ansonia High School (Ansonia, Connecticut) for 12 years prior to coming to Springfield.<\/p>\n

July-August 1915<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"newspaper<\/a>
Springfield Daily News (Springfield, Massachusetts), 12 July 1915, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More information: in the summer of 1915 she attended Cornell University<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4 July 1916<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"newspaper<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 1 July 1916, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She liked Cornell so much that she and two friends went again the next year.<\/p>\n

December 1917<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"newspaper<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 30 December 1917, page 8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She spent Christmas of 1917 with her brother and his wife: Dr. and Mrs. Allen Pierce Richmond of Dover, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

June-August 1919<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"newspaper<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 27 June 1919, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"newspaper<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 29 August 1919, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1915 Madge attended the summer session at the University of Michigan. She also visited her brother Dr. A.P (Allen Pierce) Richmond in Dover, New Hampshire, and her sister Mrs. William Jordan (Abigail May Richmond) in Lisbon, Maine.<\/p>\n

So, she also attended the University of Michigan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s good to know.<\/p>\n

15-16 November 1919<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"newspaper<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 16 November 1919, page 11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My grandmother\u2014 Madge\u2019s niece\u2014was an accountant at the American Optical Company in Southbridge, Massachusetts\u2014and in Boston, Massachusetts?<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know that.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a real find.<\/p>\n

The social briefs in newspapers have been a real goldmine of information about Madge Richmond and the family!<\/p>\n

21 May 1921<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"newspaper<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 15 May 1921, page 154<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1921 she went to study at the University of Colorado in Boulder.<\/p>\n

\"newspaper<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 17 July 1921, page 11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She left on 16 July 1921 for Colorado.<\/p>\n

June 1929<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"newspaper<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 23 June 1929 page 36<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1929 she would go down to St. Augustine, Florida, traveling through the Shenandoah Valley on the trip down and along the coast on the way back. She planned to stay at the St. Augustine Hotel.<\/p>\n

January 1934<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"newspaper<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 27 January 1934, page 10<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1934 she was named the Head of the Mathematics Department at Tech High School.<\/p>\n

14 January 1942<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Madge<\/a>
Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), 20 January 1942, page 17.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Services<\/a>
Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), 22 January 1942, page 21<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"newspaper<\/a>
Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), 21 June 1942, page 23<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And finally, in these three old newspaper articles, we learn of her death and the funeral arrangements.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an incredible amount of genealogical and family history information I found in old newspaper articles\u2014lots of stories, lots of details about her life\u2014that have turned Madge Richmond from just another relative (with only name, birth and death dates) on the family tree into a member of the family that we know and understand better.<\/p>\n

Dig into GenealogyBank\u2019s newspaper archives<\/a> to see what family history discoveries you can make and bring your family tree to life!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day I asked myself: what can I realistically find about my relatives in GenealogyBank? How many details about my family can I discover? So I decided to find out by searching GenealogyBank\u2019s historical newspaper archives for a family member we know little about: Madge E. Richmond (1866-1942). Her Career as a Teacher Madge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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":[5235,4310,4309,4,45,5302,1030,1129,1658,2233,1656,5197,4308,4307,465,2191,4312,5354,443,4303,412,5366,2020,27,734,5367,1084,5426,1650,1072,2377,5443,4306,5457,4311,5460],"class_list":["post-3875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-allen","tag-allen-pierce-richmond","tag-ansonia-high-school","tag-birth","tag-christmas","tag-death","tag-dover","tag-family","tag-family-history-2","tag-family-research","tag-family-tree","tag-grandmother","tag-high-school-teachers","tag-high-schools","tag-historical-newspapers","tag-history","tag-jordan","tag-life","tag-ma","tag-madge-richmond","tag-new-hampshire","tag-news","tag-newspaper-archives","tag-newspapers","tag-nh","tag-niece","tag-obituaries","tag-records","tag-richmond","tag-springfield","tag-teachers","tag-tech","tag-technical-high-school","tag-wife","tag-william-jordan","tag-young"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}