{"id":4064,"date":"2013-07-10T16:02:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T16:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=4064"},"modified":"2021-04-21T11:10:26","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:10:26","slug":"extreme-weather-in-history-stories-that-affected-our-ancestors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/extreme-weather-in-history-stories-that-affected-our-ancestors.html","title":{"rendered":"Extreme Weather in History: Stories That Affected Our Ancestors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Gena\u00a0Philibert-Ortega researches old newspaper articles to show how severe weather deeply affected our ancestors\u2019 lives. Gena\u00a0 is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.<\/span>\u201d
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Last week I went to pick up my son from a pool party and the outside temperature was 100 degrees at 9:00 p.m. While I expect it to be hot in the summer during the daytime, when it\u2019s 100 degrees at night I know we\u2019re in store for a heat wave.<\/p>\n

There can be no doubt that the weather significantly affected our ancestors\u2019 lives, even that of more recent generations. In my own family, my grandparents moved from the Los Angeles area to Indio, California, a desert community near Palm Springs, in the 1950s. The average daily high in the summer months is well over 100 degrees. Because my grandfather worked for the railroad, when he wasn\u2019t sitting in a train in the heat he was working outside. Having traveled to that area many times I can\u2019t imagine living there without air conditioning.<\/p>\n

How did the weather affect your ancestors? Did they or a family member suffer an injury or die due to extreme cold or heat? Do you ever consider how the weather affected your ancestors\u2019 everyday lives?<\/p>\n

\"collage<\/a>
Collage: scenes of the Blizzard of 1888 in Keene, New Hampshire. Credit: Keene Public Library and the Historical Society of Cheshire County.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Children\u2019s Blizzard of 1888<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stories of the deadly consequences of severe weather filled our ancestors\u2019 hometown newspapers. For those with Great Plains ancestors, the 12 January 1888 blizzard known as \u201cThe Children\u2019s Blizzard\u201d has great historical significance. This tremendously strong storm, which spread all the way to New England, caught everyone by surprise\u2014including children at school, some of whom died because they couldn\u2019t get home and the schools lacked provisions. This blizzard is chronicled in the book The Children\u2019s Blizzard<\/em> by David Laskin. Those who have read the \u201cLittle House on the Prairie\u201d series by Laura Ingalls Wilder are familiar with this extreme blizzard because it\u2019s depicted in the book The Long Winter<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This 1888 Missouri newspaper article reported the \u201cawful list\u201d of victims from the severe blizzard.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Kansas City Times (Kansas City, Missouri), 17 January 1888, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Newspapers are filled with articles reporting severe blizzards in history.<\/p>\n

Extreme Heat Wave Hit New England<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sudden weather anomalies like blizzards weren\u2019t the only type of weather that had dire consequences for our ancestors. Extreme heat\u2014especially the inability to escape it\u2014was also something that took its toll on our ancestors. This article from a 1911 Massachusetts newspaper reports on those who died from a heat wave blasting New England, including a man who was run over by his horse-drawn cart when the horses went crazy from the heat.<\/p>\n

\"Second<\/a>
Boston Journal (Boston, Massachusetts), 11 July 1911, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Newspapers provide information on the day-to-day weather in your ancestors\u2019 communities. Explore them to find stories of extreme storms and severe weather throughout history. Newspapers also printed old daily almanac weather reports<\/a> and bulletins that can give you insight into the weather conditions that affected your ancestors\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve researched these articles to identify extreme weather stories and weather records, consider searching a manuscript collection for a diary or journal in which someone describes how the weather on a particular day affected the city or town.<\/p>\n

Another good source of historical weather information is Google Books<\/a>. Titles such as The Weather and Climate of Chicago<\/em><\/a> by Henry Joseph Cox and John Howard Armington, and Maryland Weather Service<\/em><\/a> by Maryland Weather Service, Forrest Shreve and Oliver Lanard Fassig, provide weather data back to the beginning of the 19th century.<\/p>\n

The weather affected all aspects of our ancestors\u2019 lives from their work to their everyday living circumstances. Take a look at their area\u2019s newspapers for the story behind the weather\u2014one more way historical newspapers help you flesh out the names and dates on your family tree to get to know your ancestors better, the lives they led, and the times they lived in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega researches old newspaper articles to show how severe weather deeply affected our ancestors\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":29473,"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":[12,2719,6776,2020],"class_list":["post-4064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-genealogy","tag-genealogy-search-tips","tag-natural-disasters","tag-newspaper-archives"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/photo-0710-2013-featured-graphic-storm.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70411,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064\/revisions\/70411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}