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Wow, you are a collector too? I know what you mean when you say how much you can get from the real time accounts of ordinary people that were present, and enduring the actual drama of life during what turned out to be our history. I scour the world through the internet, dusty attics, auctions and garage sales for rare books and authentic one of a kind documents. I can't explain how much excitement that I get from what the folks wrote down, that they saw and felt, and that we are so fortunate to have the opportunity to relive through their eyes so many years later..

Also, how often have you found as I have, that our current History books flat out distort the truth, about important fact in our heritage to fit their own template of their causes?

Hello Carlo

I am a Canadian whose Family lines left England for America in the late 1700's..

Research concerning our Families last name linked to several U.S. Warships led me to visit Washington D.C.
This individual was Chief of the Unions Steam Engineering,under his office most Union warships were built.
With instruction from the Navy curators was able next to set up appointments at the National Archives.
Here I was able in 1992 to browse all manner of micro film files.
Having a last name that is not prominent made research very easy and quick.

in no time had the names and civil war muster cards for 13 family members

Having this..one could track their participation in the war and discover their personal outcomes.

2 members saw action at Gettysburg.
66TH N.Y. [Which was paired with the 69th N.Y. the Irish Brigade during most of the Corps battles] the other with the 20TH Mass.[20TH and 19TH Mass.went into the angle..the final blocking action of Pickets charge]

In the decade to follow,spent time visiting the crew of the WW-2 Fletcher class destroyer..attending reunions.. discovering their contribution in history.

Family from around the world have wondered what our kin were doing in the U.S...and now it is known .

I count myself blessed to have aquired this knowledge and to meet so many veterans.
So too the gift that is the National Archives and other such repositories.

Like yourself..enjoy research and learning via personal accounts.

Free Republic has been a wonderfull place of learning and contact point beginnings.
Have enjoyed days without count visiting SAMWolf and Co. at the Freeper Foxhole : )

Like the comment by a few posters here concerning the Movie Gettysburg....its an imagination spectacle. Thanks for sharing Gettysburg with us Carlo

success in historical research persuits. : )

I also, like to hear and read first hand accounts of people who lived through what would become historical events...one of the best sources for this, I found, was nursing homes...

I worked for many years in nursing homes..and many of the residents are there, simply because they cannot take care of themselves... but for many of them, their minds are still sharp and clear, and the stories they can tell you are wonderful...

I took care of an old lady, who was 105, when I knew her...she was something...could still dress and feed herself, wore makeup and jewelry, and came out west by wagon...Now, I am talking about the state of Washington...where the famous Mt. Rainier Natl Park is...but long ago, before it became to popular, there was a family that found mineral springs there, and set up a mineral springs spa and resort back in the early days of the 20th century...this old lady I took care of, was the daughter of those people who set up the springs...she would tell us tales of her young girlhood days at the spa, and how it was crossing the west in a wooden wagon...She was written up in the local newspaper, becaus of her age, and her obvious clarity of mind, and the newspaper article presented some of the facts...but I was privleged to sit with her, and listen to her tell me so many tales...it was wonderful...

Another old lady, was the daughter of missionaries in China, during the Boxer Rebellion...she also had wonderful tales to tell, scarey tells of running away, in fear of their lives...

One old man, was a famous obstetrician, begin written up in the papers, ,for having delivered so very many babies, in remote areas, under hard and difficult conditions, and yet he never lost a baby...he was a sweetie, and would tell us or horrendous conditions under which he often had to deliver babies, and he remembered every baby he brought into the world...

Another old man built bridges around the world, and he would tell us of the conditions of the different countries as he found them at a time, before I was even born...

One lady was a circus clown with Ringling Bros, and she would tell us about her early days spent in the circus...

So often, younger people think that all those old people in nursing homes are not worth time spent with them...that is just so incorrect...Visit a nursing home, find very old seniors who are still lucid, and I guarantee you, they will present you with living history, as they saw and lived though it...

Wow, you are a collector too?

Yep. I'll also sell letters - especially if the philatelic value is greater than the historic one.

I spent Saturday morning at a stamp show, going over a stampless cover collection. For those not in the philatelic world, a stampless cover is an envelope with a cancellation or franking, but no stamp. Most were dated before 1847, when the U.S. first began using postage stamps (but some are later). Most aren't even envelopes - just folded over letters sealed with wax.

I read most of the letters in the collection - but none had great or even good content. One of them had a steamship cancel, which the dealer who hoped to sell to me was touting, but I kept pointing out to him the two flaws - one, that it was a Canadian steamship (no offense to the Canadians here, but they're just not as valuable as American ones - at least not to American collectors), and two, you couldn't make out the name of the ship! Most of the rest of the letters had fairly common cancels - mostly from states that were part of the original 13 colonies.

I've got a letter I've been researching to see if it's genuine. If it is, it's quite valuable. It was written in 1828 by a J.L. Dawson, from the Cantonment Gibson in the Indian territory. Dawson was known as the "Lost Captain," and he had a rather colorful history - court martialed for beating a lieutenant with a cane, accused of financial irregularities, and eventually accused of murdering someone (he escaped from prison and spent the rest of his life in Westminster, MD). The actual letter doesn't have terrifically great content - he was writing to his commanding officer in Washington asking to be relieved of duty in the territory due to illness. I will assume, if the letter is real, that his request was turned down, as he married a local woman named Sophie Baylor in 1829.

I know what you mean when you say how much you can get from the real time accounts of ordinary people that were present, and enduring the actual drama of life during what turned out to be our history.

Ah, but to *them* it wasn't drama - it was just their lives! Just like *our* lives will be the future's historic drama.

I scour the world through the internet, dusty attics, auctions and garage sales for rare books and authentic one of a kind documents. I can't explain how much excitement that I get from what the folks wrote down, that they saw and felt, and that we are so fortunate to have the opportunity to relive through their eyes so many years later..

It's like a treasure hunt, sometimes. ::grin::

Occasionally - although not very often - I can hold an object or letter in my hand and get a real feel for the person who created or wrote it. My mother had a collection of Civil War letters written by two brothers who were both in the Army. You could tell by the state of the handwriting how they were feeling - it was almost eerie.

Also, how often have you found as I have, that our current History books flat out distort the truth, about important fact in our heritage to fit their own template of their causes?

I learned very young, mostly due to my father's great love of history, how wrong many of the history books are and how dangerous revisionism is. As Josephine Tey said in "The Daughter of Time," history is not in records, but in record books. I take that very much to heart. And that's why I prefer to get my sense of history from contemporary accounts and not necessarily from history books written decades or centuries later.

Mavne