My Trails into the Past

Eva Holmes, cg® gave a wonderful webinar last week, a BCG-sponsored webinar at Family Tree Webinars, called “ Social Context and the Kinship Determination Project (KDP) .” She discussed how social context helps researchers understand our ancestors’ actions, the records they created, and their place in historical and social lives. As I listened, I thought about the book I had recently read, The Farmers’ Frontier 1865-1900 by Gilbert C. Fite. [1] I found this book browsing a used bookstore in the social sciences section. That is where we can locate good sources for understanding historical and social context. This book describes the history of migration in the American lands west of the Mississippi River. Many of us have farmers who migrated to the West. Have you wondered why? Have you wondered what they found when they got there? Have you wondered how well they fared? Do you understand the process for getting land from the Federal government? From the railroad? From another land ...