I'm sure you've heard that one document does not make proof. If you can substantiate from multiple documents that's much better. This applies equally well to newspaper articles.
Sometimes I think that people trust newspapers more because the articles were contemporary to an event and they were printed and shared widely in a particular region. A healthy dose of caution and lots of fact checking will take you a long way.
On this Memorial Day I was randomly searching for family articles on OldNews.com. I searched for my grandfather, Frank Walleck. Lots of articles came up for his wives (he had three) listed as Mrs. Frank Walleck.
I clicked into this one featuring his third wife because it had a photo.
Here's the caption:
Women's Club for it Harvest Tea, Sunday, Nov. 8, at 2:30p.m. Membership
chairman Tess Donnermeyer, right, is in charge of the membership tea. Mrs.
Frank Walleck, left, is president of the club. The Woman's City Club at the
Penn-Sheraton Hotel will be the scene of the tea and fashion show.
There's nothing actually wrong with the information that I know of. What is wrong is the identification of the two women. Tess Donnermeyer is in fact on the left and Mrs. Frank Walleck is on the right. I know this because I met Mrs. Frank Walleck [Helen (Leonard) Walleck] a number of times and I've seen lots of photos of her.
In a few generations, some genealogists might be really excited to come across this photo and see what their ancestor looks like. Unless they look for more photos to corroborate this article, they will have the wrong impression. They will be searching for family traits and likenesses that don't exist.
The next time you search for newspaper articles, don't just check the facts. Make sure the people in the photos are who are supposed to be!
Source:
“Plenty of Fashion,” The Pittsburgh Press [PA], Thursday, 5 November 1959, page 23, column 2; digital image, OldNews.com (https://www.oldnews.com : accessed 27 May 2024).
Great reminder! When I was in high school a photo was published of me listing my name as Dana Andrews. My last name was not Andrews but the name of an actor. The article also created entire quotes based on “yes” or “no” answers. This experience reminds me to not trust everything in the newspaper. (But it’s sure hard not to because we want the information so badly!)
ReplyDeleteGreat example, Dana! Newspapers are amazing sources and have great stories but we still need to make sure they're right. I hop you'll pass down a corrected version of that high school era photo to your descendants.
Delete