“What Counts as Reading?”

As I stress, blog after blog, the importance of reading the documents–Got to read the documents to understand what is happening to your ancestors.

1Apr 2011 Family Circle Magazine asked this question:  according to kids 9-17, “What Counts as Reading?”  Their responses:

25% Texting back and forth with friends

28% Looking through postings or comments on social networking sites

54% Looking for and finding info online

39% None of the above

Source: Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report, Sep 2010. Well, no wonder!

Just imagine–reading the printed Congressional Report which stated that Susannah D. Clark was “childless.”  Was she?  Childless?  According to her own, handwritten affidavit included in the “Accompanying Papers,” preserved at the National Archives among the Congressional records, she had three children–one who died as a small child and 2 surviving little boys.

Got to read the documents! Several researchers before me, had used the printed Congressional Report which stated that she was childless.  So they rejected her as the ancestor.  And continued searching for some other woman–with little success.

Got to read the documents! Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

PS   The St George Family History Expo was a great success.  You could have been there.  Check out the new website:  http://family history expos.com for upcoming EXPOS and plan to attend at least one before year end.  The amount of NEW genealogy information available at an EXPO will stun you!

PPS  And of course, you get to hear me sharing all the new things I have discovered within my areas of specialty:  Virginia and the South, New York and Pennsylvania, British Isles including Ireland and the Isles of the Sea, Swiss and southern German areas–I never tire of learning something new.

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