Get a closer look at some of the photographs and documents from the Theodore Roosevelt Association's collection of family papers, recently digitized and made available to the public by American Ancestors. Read More
Last Chance! Online Seminar
Virginia Research: Four Centuries of History and Genealogy
This four-week online seminar provides a century-by-century look at records, resources, repositories, and research strategies essential to exploring your Virginia roots. Live broadcasts: Wednesdays in February.Register Now
Share your thoughts about the survey at weeklygenealogist@nehgs.org. Responses may be edited for clarity and length and featured in a future newsletter.
Last Week's Survey:
Ancestors Who Worked for Schools or School Systems
Total: 4,210 Responses
66%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors was a teacher.
7%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors was a school librarian.
2%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors was a school guidance counselor.
3%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors was a school nurse.
8%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors was a school sports coach or in the school athletic department.
9%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors was a school custodian or on the maintenance staff.
6%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors was a school bus driver.
2%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors was a school crossing guard.
8%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors worked in the school cafeteria.
8%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors was a school secretary or office worker.
18%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors was a school principal or administrator.
12%, Yes, at least one of my ancestors worked for a school or school system in a role not mentioned above.
36%, I work (or worked) for a school or school system.
18%, No, I don’t think any of my ancestors worked for a school or school system.
Readers Respond
Carolyn Mays Strutner, South Bend, Indiana: My grandfather lost both his arms in a cotton gin accident when he was a teenager in Tennessee. Although some said he would end up as a beggar “selling pencils,” he finished high school and college. His degree qualified him to "teach any subject,” and he went on to a long career as a principal, including heading a reform school.
Patricia Joy, Durango, Colorado: My grandmother, Rose Farrer Martell (1874-1955), was of a British coffee growing family in Costa Rica. She worked as an English/Spanish tutor in San Jose for more than 50 years. She taught Spanish to ambassadors, businessmen, and Christian missionaries, and she taught English to Costa Rican presidents and ambassadors. She always tried to improve my Spanish when I visited.
Elizabeth Ekström Richards, Durham, North Carolina: My grandfather, Fayette Allee, was a teacher at the Arizona State School for the Deaf and Blind for 41 years. Legally blind himself, he taught math and industrial arts such as woodworking and chair caning. He also helped the students run the snack bar, which taught them money-handling. My mother, a blind student, was briefly a housemother for blind girls living in the dormitories.
Kathy Lindemann, Los Angeles, California: My grandmother worked as a schoolteacher in one-room schoolhouses in northern Kansas in the late 1920s and early 1930s. When she left teaching to get married, her students made her a quilt with their names embroidered on it, along with the name of the school. The quilt is my cherished possession. All that remains of that school is a water pump and a bit of the original foundation.
Linda Morrison, Newton Massachusetts: My grandmother from Hazleton, Pennsylvania, taught in one- or two-room school houses for two years in order to save money to attend Emerson College (then Emerson College of Oratory) in Boston. She graduated from Emerson in 1921 and later founded an amateur drama group in Nashua, New Hampshire, that produced plays for a decade.
Vickey Baggott, Ladysmith, Virginia: I was an elementary school teacher and, later, a university government documents/law librarian for over 25 years. My mother was a high school English teacher and school/university librarian. Her mother was a primary school teacher and her maternal grandmother was a teacher at a young women's finishing school. My father was a high school American history teacher and his mother was a school teacher and school principal. That's four generations of educators stretching back to before the Civil War.
Catherine “Casey” Zahn, Pennington, New Jersey: After retiring from 35 years as a teacher, I was thrilled to be selected by Dustin Axe to be a part of the youth curriculum for NEHGS. I feel strongly that children who learn about their family’s history have a better understanding of the world.
What We’re Reading
The Indigenous Americans Who Visited Europe “A new book reverses the narrative of the Age of Discovery, which has long evoked the ambitions of Europeans looking to the Americas rather than vice versa.”
New England Quaker Records to Be Digitized The New England Yearly Meeting of Friends Records—rich and voluminous materials of Quakers going back to their mid-17th-century beginnings—is the focus of a new digitization project.
Spotlight: Community History Archive, Bryan County, Oklahoma
by Valerie Beaudrault
Bryan County, seated in Durant, is located in southeastern Oklahoma. The Donald W. Reynolds Community Center and Library has provided an online archive of 23 local newspaper titles, including Durant Daily Democrat (1911-2018), Durant Weekly News and Bryan County Democrat (1944-1985), Durant Weekly News (1904-1979), The Bokchito News (1913-1920), Southeastern Oklahoma Citizen and Bryan County Democrat (1932-1937), and Bennington Tribune (1911-1922). Search the database by keyword across all papers or within a single title, and limit results by date range. You can also browse individual newspapers. Search Now
Editor's Note: Last week's Spotlight about library resources from Hickory, North Carolina
included an incorrect link. The correct link to access these resources ishere.
New Hampshire vital and church records provide a wealth of information for 17th- to 20th-century family history research. Discover your New Hampshire ancestry through our digital and print resources. View Now
Database News
New Database from the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center (JHC)
We're excited to announce a new database in collaboration with the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center (JHC) which will feature several small collections from the JHC archives. The first collection to be added is Lynn, MA: Harry Lipsky Moving Company Records, 1934-1936, which includes the names and addresses of the company's clients, and the cost and contents of their moves. Search Now
Planning for the Future?
Name Your Beneficiaries Today
Non-probate assets such as an IRA, 401(k), or life insurance policy are not covered in your will or trust—you must name beneficiaries separately. Our friends at FreeWill.com have provided a free and secure online tool to guide you through naming beneficiaries for your non-probate assets. Learn More
