Family History General

Do You Know What a Stereopticon Is?

120 Hancock St

Annie Elizabeth Evans wanted them in the schools in Brooklyn, New York in the 1890’s. How do I know? Because I found an article about that at The Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper website. She was the president of the local Parents League (a pre-cursor to PTOs) and hosted a meeting about using this technology in the schools. (Find out more about stereopticons at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereopticon )

Annie Elizabeth Evans married George Weightman in 1865 and setup their second home at 120 Hancock St. in Brooklyn. How do I know? I searched at http://bklyn.newspapers.com/ for anyone with the last name Weightman in the historical newspaper database. This search returned 306 results. Three generations of my Weightman ancestors lived in Brooklyn. Most of the results were for my ancestors.

I was able to read about the grammar school graduations, engagements, weddings, Parents League meetings, recitals, and funerals that all happened at 120 Hancock St. (The above picture includes the contemporary version of 120 Hancock St. Thanks Google Street View.) I know a lot about this branch of my family so these types of events “colored in-between the lines” of the lives I had already reconstructed. I located a couple of death dates that I hadn’t seen before.

There was one big surprise… It is family lore that Annie died an “unglamorous” accidental death. But this story that appeared in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle didn’t get handed down. On December 2, 1899 there was a runaway accident in Prospect Park. The Weightman’s horses on their wagon got spooked and collided with a runabout. Mrs. Weightman was thrown from the wagon and hit her head on a lamp post. She needed 25 stitches and took some time to regain consciousness but went on to host many more Parents League meetings.

Historical newspapers if available for where your family lived can really “paint the pictures” of your ancestors lives. Using your search engine of choice find out what newspapers existed and then search for those titles. There are many fee based and free historical newspaper sites. You may want to check out ancestry.com, newspapers.com and familysearch.org. Have fun reading the newspaper.

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