When I read microfilm, I usually come across titillating bits and interesting articles unrelated to Emmett Wilson, and save them. These little items tell me that people of Emmett’s day weren’t as uptight as we think, and that even 100 years later, we still have a lot in common.

Today, I found this:

Journalistic klutziness. The article keeps repeating ‘Dave,’ and that’s the name the readers are going to remember — not the other guy — the wrongdoer! Doh! The Milton Gazette, Jan. 30, 1914.

I wonder if their descendants would want this for their genealogical files.

Would you want this for your files?

Everyone has a family skeleton or two in the closet; some families want to keep it that way. I get that. I, too, have a big ‘skeleton’ in my closet, and some of my family are not thrilled that I’m pulling it out (nothing to do with Halloween decor, mind you). I’m talking about the other book in progress on my great-grandmother, the suffragette. I’ve mentioned her in the blog before.

Yeah. My g-grandfather was of this mindset. Source: flavorwire.com

You see, I don’t think my great-grandmother’s story is a ‘skeleton’ per se, but it is a terrible example of what happens when a family control freak (my great grandfather) is given free rein — or reign — which seems to be a more accurate description of the kind of guy he was.

But, my 80-something-year-old aunt (the only living relative who remembers her and this story) is mortified that I’m writing about her! She won’t even discuss it with me. I believe she must think that this kind of dysfunction never happened anywhere else. Of course, that’s not true. What. Ever.

My take on research is that we need to learn whatever lesson we can from the past (be it good or bad), and keep moving forward — but we cannot move forward when we are misinformed. Or, if we choose to ignore reality.

Reality has a way of coming back to bite us in the ass if we don’t face truth in our lives, and deal with it. I don’t know if the descendants of the Correction article want this kind of truth, or care about it, but the information is there. That newspaper editor was a klutz of a journalist, though.

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More writing on tap today (another chapter), plus MSU Football (Go Bulldogs!). I broke the first chapter of Emmett’s book into three subchapters. There is a lot of information covered in that section; the breakup works better from an organizational point. So, I met my goal and got the first chapter drafted! It needs work, but it is fairly well structured.

Go State!

Categories: Family Florida History Interesting & Odd

Tagged as: family skeletons journalistic klutziness Mississippi State Bulldogs Mississippi State University suffragette The Milton Gazette

jsmith532

Professor,
Communication, Arts, and the Humanities
The University of Maryland Global Campus