{"id":15040,"date":"2022-04-10T12:22:49","date_gmt":"2022-04-10T17:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=15040"},"modified":"2022-04-10T12:22:49","modified_gmt":"2022-04-10T17:22:49","slug":"found-grandma-on-thursday-the-21st","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/10\/found-grandma-on-thursday-the-21st\/","title":{"rendered":"Found Grandma on Thursday the 21st"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The entry in my Mom’s calendar for 21 July 1994 says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keith found G. Neill<\/p>

made funeral arrangements<\/p>

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I can easily interpret the two lines because I know what happened on that date. I know that “G. Neill” is a reference to Grandma Neill and not some relative named Gerald or someone else whose name begins with the letter G. It’s when we don’t already know the information to which something is referring that interpretation can be difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Found” in this case does not mean that she had been lost. It means that she was deceased when my father found her. The comment about making funeral arrangements is suggestive of what “found” meant in this case. That’s a good reminder to always look at things in context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When analyzing a statement or reference that is cryptic or confusing, it’s important to locate as much about the item as possible–when it was written, who wrote it, what its purpose was, etc. It’s also helpful to begin on identifying and analyzing the things that are clear to interpret and not likely to be misunderstood–who Keith is and what funeral arrangements are is pretty clear to me. Also read the item in the context of other items in the material in which they were located. In this case, there are other references to my Grandmother’s funeral in the days after this entry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also remember that my Mother always called her mother-in-law Grandma Neill. I never heard her refer to her by her first name and the only time I’ve seen Mom refer to Grandma as “Mrs. Neill” is on a few items created early in my parents’ marriage. While Grandma was a Grandma before my parents married, it appears that my Mom never referred to her mother-in-law as Grandma until after my Mom had children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But sometimes “found” means more than simply “found.” One should always be thinking about what one finds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Join Michael at either the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana<\/a>, or the\u00a0Family History Library in Salt Lake City\u00a0<\/a>this summer! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The entry in my Mom’s calendar for 21 July 1994 says: Keith found G. Neill made funeral arrangements I can easily interpret the two lines because I know what happened on that date. I know that “G. Neill” is a reference to Grandma Neill and not some relative named Gerald or someone else whose name […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153978,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/153978"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}