Monday, March 30, 2009

Whose Father Was He?

The NY Times has an interesting series of articles running this week called Whose Father Was He? The first article ran today.

It's about a soldier killed at Gettysburg who died with no identifying information, but was clutching a photograph of three children. Who was he? What was his story?



A successful effort was made in 1863 to find the answer. But that's just the first installment.

My mother recommended this story, so siblings: you know your homework assignment.

Update: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an article about this photograph's story in 2003. If you don't want to read the 5-part series in the Times, I'll bet you'll find it all summarized here. And Historynet.com has a long article here.

Second Update: Having read the second installment, it's clear that this article is about more than Amos Humiston. It's about the process of research, and a very good read it is.

Third Update: Part three is here.

Fourth Update: Part four is here.

Fifth and Final Update: Part five is here.


2 comments:

Kay said...

OK. I'm done. When's the test?
A really touching story and an interesting read. Thanks, Motherl

Jeannelle said...

Oh, my goodness.....what a treasure of a story! Thank yous to your mother for finding it and for you sharing it here on the blog.