WEATHER AND FAMILY LORE
How Fierce Was That Blizzard?
How Fierce Was That Blizzard?
Long Beach has been in the grip of a week-long heat wave, and that got your QHGS Blogger to think about weather and how hurricanes, droughts, and devastating floods affected our ancestors.
The hurricane of September 1938, shown on the weather map above, gave my father plenty of work. He was an engineer and photographer for the Bureau of Public Roads during the Depression; and, one of his jobs was documenting damage done by this hurricane to the highways in Connecticut. Your Blogger still has these photographs, so I know that his stories of finding huge boats from Long Island Sound as far as 2 miles inland were true. But—how does one find out if the blizzard of 1906, the one your grandmother always referred to as “The Storm of Aught Six,” was really as bad as she said it was? Where are the records that prove a “big flood in 1882” wiped out the family farm and sent your relatives on their Westward migration to California?
If you have family stories that describe severe weather, you can find out about historic weather conditions online:
“Weather History—Historical Weather Data and Storm Timelines” has six links to North American, Canadian, and European weather history sites at http://genealogy.about.com/od/weather_history/.
“Researching Our Ancestors’ Weather at Family Tree Magazine” is at
The hurricane of September 1938, shown on the weather map above, gave my father plenty of work. He was an engineer and photographer for the Bureau of Public Roads during the Depression; and, one of his jobs was documenting damage done by this hurricane to the highways in Connecticut. Your Blogger still has these photographs, so I know that his stories of finding huge boats from Long Island Sound as far as 2 miles inland were true. But—how does one find out if the blizzard of 1906, the one your grandmother always referred to as “The Storm of Aught Six,” was really as bad as she said it was? Where are the records that prove a “big flood in 1882” wiped out the family farm and sent your relatives on their Westward migration to California?
If you have family stories that describe severe weather, you can find out about historic weather conditions online:
“Weather History—Historical Weather Data and Storm Timelines” has six links to North American, Canadian, and European weather history sites at http://genealogy.about.com/od/weather_history/.
“Researching Our Ancestors’ Weather at Family Tree Magazine” is at
RESEARCH TIP: If you are puzzled by a seemingly sudden move that your ancestors made, be sure to look in weather records. A drought, a tornado, a flood, a prairie fire, or a forest fire may have been the catalyst for their relocation.
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