52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 6: Social Media

Hello! It's Week 6 in Amy Johnson Crow's genealogy challenge: writing about 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks (www.amyjohnsoncrow.com).

Week 6: Social Media

When I first started researching my family history, like many people, I focused on names, dates, and places. I still enjoy this piece of it, adding branches to my family tree, but what I've found is that the real excitement comes from stories. Even glimpses into the daily lives of my ancestors are thrilling and bring them to life in ways that the names and dates simply never could.

One of the best sources for these more colorful bits of information is newspapers. I think we have a perception in modern times that our privacy has been confiscated by social media like Facebook and Twitter. But in reality, in most small towns and big cities across the U.S., local newspapers shared intimate details of people's lives daily to the public. I've found mentions of car accidents, social visits between family and friends, guest lists and menus for club and church meetings, grisly and graphic details of tragic and ordinary deaths, hospital admittance and discharges, and much more.

The example that sprung to mind first when I saw this week's prompt was an article describing a soccer match between between two local "junior league" teams in the Pittsburgh Press, October 1921. On the roster for the "Mine No. 3" team (aka Mollenauer, PA), are E. Wisneski, S. Wisneski, and Vrana. Almost certainly this is evidence that a quarter of the team was comprised of my ancestors: Lillian Wisneski's older brothers, Edward (age ~18) and Stanley (age ~26), and her future husband, Joseph Vrana Sr. (age ~18). Interestingly, there is also a "Kosky" on the roster, which is a very similar name to the surname of Ceclia Wisneski's husband, Jacob Kasky. On this day, the Mine 3 team beat Lawrenceville, 5 to 1.

E. Wisneski, S. Wisneski, and Vrana on Mine. No. 3 Junior League Soccer Team

The Pittsburgh Press, October 2, 1921. Newspapers.com.

What is particularly wonderful to me is that my grandma wrote a note in her "Grandmother Remembers" book saying that her mother and father, Lillian Wisniewski and Joseph Vrana, went to school together and were neighbors, their brothers "playing ball together" and the older girls and boys "partied together." Here is the evidence in newsprint that the families did, in fact, play ball together.

Thanks, as always, for reading! Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments below.