Adding Context for 3D View of Ancestors, Part 3

In addition to examining family situation (part 1 of this series) and community (part 2), another way to flesh out ancestors' lives is to look at influences on society at that time. 

So many elements influenced the society in which ancestors lived and the daily lives they led--including religion, economics, legal and political considerations, industry and technology, urban/suburban/rural life styles, plus local and global health developments. Not everything had a profound impact on every ancestor, but I try to consider key developments that shaped the course of their lives.  

I read the news today, oh boy! 

My top pick for analyzing societal influences is the newspaper. Not just local newspapers where that ancestor lived, but statewide and/or national news sources. For ancestors who lived in the 19th and 20th centuries, papers are a particularly valuable research resource--I browse the news as well as the advertisements, which reflect norms and beliefs of the time.

My immigrant ancestors settled in New York City, so city papers are good starting points for me. Actually, most papers (even small-town papers) had some national and international coverage, I noticed while researching my husband's ancestors in rural Ohio and Indiana.

Newspapers provide accounts of local/national politics, infrastructure improvements, crime, food and fashion, and so much more. Ads and reporting reflected new types of jobs, new transportation, new products and services, all part of societal influences on ancestors. Letters to the editor reveal unvarnished opinions expressed at the time and are fascinating to read.

Constant change

All these changes kept coming, affecting my ancestors day to day and over the long period. After the Roaring Twenties, when many ancestors got on their feet economically, the Great Depression was real challenge, followed by World War II. News reports allow me to follow along and understand these influences. Commercial radio, motion pictures, commercial television, jet planes, computers--these innovations were in the lives of my parents and some in the lives of my grandparents, and all were covered in the newspaper. 

Political and legal events made a huge difference in ancestors' lives. My mother was born late in 1919, a few months after Congress passed legislation granting women the right to vote (the 19th Amendment wasn't ratified until 1920). I read all about it in the newspaper! No wonder Mom brought her children to the polling place each year so we could watch her exercise her right to vote.

The drafts instituted in WWI and WWII affected the men in my family tree--of course, all well documented in newspapers of the time. Food rationing was a daily concern for ancestors living through WWII, especially for my maternal grandparents, who ran a grocery store and needed customers to bring ration books along when they made a purchase. 

Many genealogy websites have information and videos about paid and free access to old newspapers, just go ahead and search...and think creatively about the personal and professional lives of your ancestors. It was fun to run across ads for a Hungarian-style restaurant run by an ancestor in New York City when I searched via Fulton History, for instance. When this type of restaurant went out of fashion, he went out of business, context I kept in mind while looking at the arc of his life.

Don't forget: New newspapers are added to free and paid sites every month, so redo your searches now and then to pick up new clues to the context of your family history.