We need YOU! Help improve this week's Collaborative Profile of the Week. Davidson Children

Question

This week's winning profile is a little different. It's actually three profiles of three young siblings who were killed in a tragic school explosion in 1937.

 

Joe Davidson age 16  http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Davidson-3366 

Helen Davidson age 13  http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Davidson-3367 

Anna Davidson Age 11    http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Davidson-3368

There is a lot of information about the explosion. We could easily make a separate space page on the incident and link it to the children. Or just a few paragraphs.

There should be census data on the children and the family.

There are sources listed on the profiles.

Remember when you start something, post an answer. This keeps from duplicating efforts and keeps the question high in the G2G.

Comments

Thanks, Anne! Now featured on the main home page.

I think this is a really great choice. I love that we've been featuring a wide range of profiles. This shows the breadth of family content on WikiTree. We're not just a genealogy site with pedigrees and names and dates. We care about the people themselves, and their stories, even if they're not our ancestors.

Chris

P.S. I also think a free-space profile for the explosion is a great idea. That's exactly the sort of thing the free-space profile system is designed for.

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Added some sources to their mother.

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Thank you Chris

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This newspaper link has many accounts of the explosion, however, in the text - 2nd column from right - very bottom - it states George M. Davidson identified the bodies of his three children - Helen, Anna Laura and Joe Wheeler.

Because of the discrepancy in the father's name, I hesitate to add the link to the chidlren's profiles???

http://cdm15999.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15999coll12/id/68468

as does this one: (which may be a copy/dupe article)

http://www3.gendisasters.com/texas/2696/new-london-tx-school-explosion-mar-1937?page=0,1

Chris

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The nature of newspapers is that one person writes the story, it goes out on the newswires, and others write theirs stories from the information available, or simply quote what was in the original. Evidently whoever 'on the spot' reporter, must have gotten Joseph M.'s name wrong. That happens often enough in newspaper accounts. I would go ahead and put in the link, but mention somewhere that many newspaper accounts had the name of the Davidson children's father wrong.

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Joseph Davidson is their father.This is my grandmothers family. I know without a doubt Joseph was their father. Joseph is my grandmothers brother and these were his children..I don't know who the George Davidson is but its wrong. We have death Certificates, We have Census records, and I even have birth announcements..

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Oh I'm quite sure that Joseph is right and that George is newspaper error. The local paper printed a picture of my upside down crashed car, no story, just a caption. The caption had 5 errors in it.

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It's clear from the profile data that the newspaper incorrectly listed the father's name as George.  That 's why I said I hesitate to include the link -  but that newspaper does has several articles about the explosion that might be of interest.

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Thanks Chris.

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www.nlsd.net Is the official site and has alot of info on the event. Family member and survivors run the site. They also have a museum. They have a Telegraph letter  sent from Adolf Hitler. Sad but some intersting stuff for people who are interested in history.. It was Walter Cronkite's first assignment.

Answer 1

I converted the Ancestry links to FamilySearch so that all can see the documents and tidied up the Find a Grave links as well.

Comments

Thank you Karen, That definitely needed doing.

Answer 2

Chris Hoyt added some sources to their mother.

Answer 3

I am going to create a space page for the disaster.