Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

I know this guy. He considers himself to be a big historian. He loves to talk about local history, and he gets involved in a lot of research projects and archaeological digs. I routinely get people coming to me asking for further information on things he’s told them. The only problem is, he can’t be bothered to actually know anything.

He’s never really learned enough about Clinton County’s history to be able to speak authoritatively on it. In the absence of any concrete information, he fills in the blanks with wild imagination. I once saw him, for instance, mistake marbles for musket balls. Another time, he found some old leather shoe heels, and assumed them to be epaulets from an old uniform.

It’s never anything normal and everyday, with him. Everything he discovers is an item from a distinguished soldier, or royalty, or something impressive like that. In spite of the fact that there’s much more to be learned from the study of regular, common items.

Then there’s a woman who keeps talking to me because she wants to write about the paranormal. She likes paranormal investigation, and she likes writing, aside from actually learning how to do either thing. What she needs to do is learn the science before investigating, and learn about sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling before doing any writing. But she hasn’t gotten that basic background stuff.

It’s what an old music teacher of mine used to call building windows without foundations. Architecturally, you can’t create huge, beautiful windows until you have the foundation of a building to hold them up. When he said it, he meant that you can’t play beautiful music until you’ve mastered the basics of your instrument. And the same applies to history and paranormal research—You can’t really make impressive discoveries and write about them without learning the building blocks of how to do it.

Yeah, I’m kind of venting here, because people like this have caused me a few headaches over the years. But I’d like to think I’m imparting some useful information, too, because this could be considered a teachable moment.

Before anyone can make big, fun, earth-shattering discoveries, they have to get the basics down first. Study local history—In every area, there’s at least one book that’s an excellent source for historic information. (In our county, it’s Linn’s History.) Little by little, learn about the area, so when local history comes up, you know what you’re talking about.

But more important than knowing the information is knowing how to find the information. Anyone who wants to study local history needs to spend a little time at the libraries, the courthouses, the newspapers, and the museums, learning how to use them and do the sort of research required.

Here’s the thing: All the right information is out there, waiting to be found. There is information on every person, every building, every grave. It’s just a matter of knowing where to look and how to find it.

To learn about properties and buildings, there are deeds at the courthouse, and city directories at the local library. (Courthouses will not vary much, place to place. Libraries and local museums may take a little figuring out if you leave your home county.) Obituaries are at the library or newspaper office, and marriage records are at the county courthouse. Both of those are excellent sources for learning about people. Our local library has old newspapers back as far as 1813, so it’s not as if there’s a lack of information.

It’s tempting to run right out and try to be an authority on these things, but don’t do that. Get the basics down first—Build those foundations, and then the beautiful windows can follow. And then the deeds that tell you who built them.