52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 35: Back to School

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past. I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

There is so much that can be written about school. I could write about all of my ancestors who were school teachers, starting with my grandmother, Anna M. (Sullivan) Hork. Her aunts, Helena and Margaret Gleeson were also teachers in Anaconda, Montana, and in Portland, Oregon.

I could find all of the yearbook and school photos of pupils in my family (which would be mostly the people who attended school in the 20th century).

Mt. Diablo HS Yearbook, 1950

Lela Johnston, Mt. Diablo HS, 1952

Me in 1st grade

Me in 5th grade

Newspapers covered school activities and I have a few of those items to share. The first is the school lunch menu for the week. I loved western styled beans and often traded my sack lunch with someone who had lunch money. School lunches were prepared by lunch ladies and it was always hot and tasty!

Contra Costa Times, 10/18/1964

My grandmother won sports awards at her college and the newspaper had a write up.

1914, newspaper unknown

I have collected several shots of schools attended by myself and my ancestors.

Walnut Creek Grammar School

St. John's School in Napa

Lastly, one could show some report cards of years past. It is interesting to see how classes were graded and the comments made about the pupils. Also, report cards are a great place to get signatures of the parents.

My mother's report card in 1941

My great-aunt's report card, 1917

This exercise will help me put together the lecture on school records. I have some great images I'll be able to use to illustrate the different kinds of records to document school life.

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