Finding Stories

I’ve been thinking about…

…finding stories.

“Historical research” is a stuffy term that does not capture — at all — the excitement and intrigue of what is essentially discovering stories.  

I spend quite a bit of time exploring the past, specifically the history of the little town I’ve lived in all my life. Almost seventy years of that “history” are my own memories.  Then I have dear friends who are decades older than me who share their memories and stories.  And then there are the town’s newspapers that we have — now digitized! — from 1903 to 2007 when the weekly paper ended, that are full of stories of people and events — history!  

Most little towns had newspapers that each week reported on the news people wanted to know — like births and deaths and who is down with the flu, who was injured on the farm, etc.   The ads reminded folks of coming events like the Methodists’ covered dish supper, or the entertainment planned at the Grange Hall.  The legal notices alerted everyone of an estate being settled —or challenged.  

All of life was right there each week in black and white for everyone to read. 

I was speaking to a group this past week on the history of our library.  We reflected on the blessing of having over a hundred years of stories recorded each week and then of the loss of not having a local weekly newspaper since 2007.  Where are those stories of the last fifteen years?   I suppose social media captures “news” and stories.  But how will these be retrieved years from now?  Indeed, how do we sort through all of it now? 

Will emails in years to come be as accessible as printed letters and journals that we rely on for insights into the past?   How will those in the future explore our stories and history?

I shared with the group that historian/author/professor Bill Brands tells his students to keep a written journal and then, when old, give it to the local library.  “You will be read and remembered forever.”  

History — stories — do matter.  As my friends at National History Day say, “If you don’t know where you have been, how will you know where you are going.”