“Just the facts, ma’am.” While that might have sufficed for Detective Joe Friday in “Dragnet,” today’s family historians need more than that when conducting research. With an abundance of resources at our fingertips, there’s no reason to be limited by a dry list of names, dates and places alone.
Explore your ancestor’s life by using online social history resources that offer invaluable insight. Check out these 31 free websites dedicated to social history research – they are sure to bring dull facts alive by telling the compelling stories behind each challenge they faced or event or trend that altered their existence. Each website is organized by topic or place to help you quickly locate resources suited for your research needs.
What Is Social History? Katherine Scott Sturdevant defines Social History as “an exploration of everyday lives”, according to Betterway Books and her book Bringing Your Family to Life Through Social History.
Traditional history often emphasizes well-known figures, key political events and broad trends; social history takes a different approach by looking more at everyday activities like making a living, raising children, keeping house and moving from place to place as well as how storms, war, disease and cultural shifts impacted ordinary people’s lives.
Think of social history as the link between your family (genealogy) and wider history of an area or nation – history with an intimate feel!
Imagine knowing your ancestor moved from Kentucky to Nebraska between 1870-1880 but having no further details of their journey. Locating routes taken by westward-bound settlers–along with any obstacles they encountered on their travels–brings it all back home. Once arrived at their destination, once there they made homes; how were life on the frontier like; did they experience tornados or blizzards along their journey?
