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The News Tribune, Tacoma, Washington |
Resources to Uncover the Noted Athlete
Recently the a3Genealogy Research Team
was charged to recreate an ancestor’s lost athletic scrapbook. Here are some of the few tips uncovered.
Do you have an ancestor who was an athlete? You may
know about your relative’s prowess from family lore or may have discovered
their talent in the course of your research. The key to successfully ferret information
on a competitive athlete lies in their athletic level: amateur,
professional, or Olympic level. The
researcher must also understand local, regional, state, and league rankings of
the specific sport being researched.
It is helpful to know how competitions are organized.
For example, what leagues or clubs are there locally in the region? Most
understand collegiate sport school divisions, or what was called the interscholastic competitions, but if not, here is a good
review of the workings of NCAA founded
in 1906. Know that most sports have their own national organization, as well as
local groups. Often the accounts of your athletic ancestors' accomplishments
may be located in under used university archives and records centers.
Art Strom was both a football player in the fall, and a skier in the winter. His university yearbook blurb, 1942, also provided the high school he
attended.
Researchers may also uncover ancestors who attended defunct universities through yearbooks. Harold Strader, a multi-sports athlete at the College of Emporia was found in the 1954 annals of this now defunct private Presbyterian college in Emporia, Kansas.
Harold Strader ran on the winning track team for The Fighting Presbies. As with any research on a defunct institution, the family historian will want to identify the successor. Looking for the papers, and yearbooks of the Fighting Presbies that closed their door in 1974, researchers would need to contact the successor, the University of Emporia, in Emporia Kansas.
If your ancestor made it to the professional level of
their sport, you can expand your research. For example, baseball has a website
that lists of over 22,700 major league
players and information on minor league affiliates.
Like all sports, baseball has tiered affiliates: AAA, AA, Adv A A Rookie; and
don’t forget the Foreign Rooke. Visit https://www.baseball-reference.com/.
Most sports have an associated museum or hall of fame. The International Swimming Hall of Fame, which also has a museum, is at https://www.ishof.org/. We were able to search by athlete and year.
For other Olympic games, researchers may find participants,
medal winners, and more on this comprehensive (cited) U. S. at the
Olympics Wikipedia page: For Track and Field we were also able to
obtain the Alphabetical
Index of All Olympic Trial Competitors.
Other Resources
- Sports Museums. Some states have their own Sports Museums. You can find information about the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame at https://mosportshalloffame.com, for example.
- Local Libraries. Many local libraries are the collectors of regional yearbooks, local libraries, obituaries, etc.
- State Historical Societies. A State Historical Society may be the repository of ephemera, such as programs or posters. This is a great place to check for magazines or newspapers dedicated to the sport.
- Newspaper Research. For your Olympic ancestors know that newspaper articles reporting the results of tryouts and events were reported from the beginning of the 1896 modern Olympics. Know that the Olympic games were cancelled in 1916, 1940, and 1944 but, that leaves many potential years in which your ancestor might have competed.
Lead Writer:
Julie Crain Miguel, Walnut Hill Genealogy
a3Genealogy Freelance Researcher
a3genealogy.com
Accurate Accessible Answers
a3genealogy@gmail.com
Very interesting. Fun to see Art Strom listed. Good job‼️
ReplyDeleteHe has been one of our most exciting sport enthusiast / athletes.
Delete