|
 Bill
Donath outlines World War I
research as historical society
meets
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[October 19, 2012]
Bill Donath,
president of the Logan County
Genealogical & Historical
Society, gave the presentation
Monday evening for the group's
October meeting, explaining his
current research project. |
 In
January he began collecting
information about Logan County
during World War I. The
information includes the effect
of the war on the people,
organizations, businesses and
families.
The process Donath is using
involves reading county
newspapers, books and other
publications of the WWI period.
He also collects information
that would not have happened had
the war not occurred. He makes
copies of those articles and
scans them into his computer.
There are scores of files under
the heading of WWI research.
He has found that during
October 1918, the Spanish flu
epidemic hit Logan County,
causing double anxiety, with the
war being the other concern.
Many deaths during this period
from both the war and the flu
caused a level of grief that
must have equaled that which
occurred during the Civil War.
His research will continue
until he has read all of the
county newspapers of the period.
He is nearly finished with the
Lincoln Courier-Herald of 1918.
He will go back to 1917 and also
do 1919 since many of the
soldiers and war personnel did
not return to the U.S. until the
third quarter of 1919. As he
reads the papers he compiles an
index of the vital statistics of
births, marriages and deaths.
He also uses other sources of
information for his research,
such as www.ancestry.com, WWI
websites, books from the period
and books published by the LCGHS.
He approximates that his
research will continue for
another two years.
[to
top of second column] |
Many of the articles are
being reprinted in the LCGHS
quarterly, Roots & Branches,
along with articles he had
collected during earlier
research on the Civil War era.
The research of that era has
been included in two books:
"Logan County During the Civil
War" and "Logan County's Civil
War Dead." Donath has no plans
at this time for publishing a
book or books about this era,
but anyone who wants to
contribute to this collection
may do so by regular mail or
email.
Anyone wanting information on
soldiers or events during this
period should send an email to
the society:
lcghs1@hotmail.com.
The society meets the third
Monday of each month.
[Text from file received from
the
Logan County Genealogical &
Historical Society]
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