{"id":4442,"date":"2013-08-22T15:52:47","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T15:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=4442"},"modified":"2021-04-21T11:10:33","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:10:33","slug":"dear-mother-family-letters-and-your-genealogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/dear-mother-family-letters-and-your-genealogy.html","title":{"rendered":"Dear Mother: Family Letters and Your Genealogy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Gena\u00a0Philibert-Ortega shows how your ancestors\u2019 letters can help with your family history research\u2014and how you can find them. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.<\/span>\u201d
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Have you ever used a letter<\/a> in your family history research? Letters from friends and family as well as those from businesses and organizations can provide information for your genealogy that can\u2019t be found in standard genealogical resources.<\/p>\n

Letters from Familial Archives<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the introduction to their book Women\u2019s Letters: America from the Revolutionary War to the Present<\/em>, editors Lisa Grunwald and Stephen J. Adler remark: \u201cLike women talking over the back fence, the telephone, the breakfast plates, or the business lunch, women\u2019s letters rarely just exchange information. Instead they tell stories; they tell secrets\u2026they\u2014usually without meaning to\u2014write history.\u201d[i]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Photo credit: Gena Philibert-Ortega<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Letters<\/a> from family and friends can provide wonderful clues for your family history. In the case of my own family history research, a letter held by a distant cousin from my 5th great-grandfather listed the names of his children and their birthdates. He also provided insight into his everyday life as an elderly widower living with one of his daughters.<\/p>\n

Letters in Manuscript Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n

While some researchers may be fortunate to have inherited the familial archives, not everyone is lucky enough to have copies of family correspondence. Even if you have no access to the letters penned by your ancestors you may want to search for letters written to and from friends, neighbors and community members where your ancestor lived. These pieces of correspondence, found in manuscript collections, can provide social history information about events that affected your ancestor as well as the possibility of mentioning your family members.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Photo credit: Gena Philibert-Ortega<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To find a manuscript collection for the place your ancestor lived in, use a website like ArchiveGrid<\/a> or the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)<\/a> and search on the name of the place your ancestor was from (for example, city and state), not just the name of your ancestor. Look through these results to find any mention of correspondence for the time and place your ancestor was from. State historical societies are another good place to search for letters.<\/p>\n

Letters in Newspapers<\/strong><\/p>\n

There can be other places to find correspondence. Surprisingly, one place to find letters<\/a> is the newspaper. Remember that a newspaper is the voice of a community and as such all types of news can be found there, including letters. In some cases the letters are intended to be published in the newspaper, as in the case of Letters to the Editor.<\/p>\n

\"Letters<\/a>
Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 12 June 1915, page 8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In others, the recipient has shared a letter they received that they thought would be of interest to their neighbors. During war time soldiers\u2019 letters home were sometimes shared in the newspaper, as in this feature \u201cLetters from Over There.\u201d These published correspondences can provide you with a glimpse of what life was like for those in your ancestor\u2019s community.<\/p>\n

\"Letters<\/a>
Baltimore American (Baltimore, Maryland), 26 August 1918, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even children are represented in letters published in newspapers, as in the case of letters to Santa.<\/p>\n

\"Letters<\/a>
Colorado Springs Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colorado), 20 December 1903, page 12<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Don\u2019t assume that just because you did not inherit your ancestor\u2019s letter correspondence that none exists. Check out archives, libraries and newspapers for more information about your ancestor\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

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[i]<\/a> Women\u2019s Letters. America from the Revolutionary War to the Present. Edited by Lisa Grunwald and Stephen J Adler. Page 1. Available on Google Books http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=y8cGGFpBnBEC&lpg=PA415&dq=%22lydia%20E%20Pinkham%22&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=%22lydia%20E%20Pinkham%22&f=false<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega shows how your ancestors\u2019 letters can help with your family history research \u2013 and how you can find them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":26545,"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":[12,2719,18861,2020],"class_list":["post-4442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-genealogy","tag-genealogy-search-tips","tag-letters-and-diaries-or-journals","tag-newspaper-archives"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/illustration-0810-2017-featured-graphic-writing-hand.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4442","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=4442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70419,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4442\/revisions\/70419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}