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Minor, heavy traffic congestion reported in the Wyoming Valley this morning

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River Street Jazz Cafe event to benefit young man stricken with cancer

<p>Enjoying summer cookouts and visits to the beach?</p><p>There&#8217;s another ritual getting under way this time of year: high school and college athletes braving the high temps to prepare themselves for autumn heroics.</p><p>So if you&#8217;re a genealogist eager to research the sports careers of your ancestors here in Wyoming Valley, now&#8217;s the time. Here&#8217;s your game plan.</p><p>High schools: Yearbooks contain lots of information about the sports the students played down through the years, including photos. Check the public library serving the town where your ancestor lived (and played) for a possible yearbook collection. School districts and individual private high schools often have yearbooks, but for security reasons access could be limited.</p><p>Remember that in the 1960s scores of small schools were folded into consolidated districts. So you have to know the modern equivalent of the old school.</p><p>Sports are news. For stories about games and seasons, visit the Luzerne County Historical Society and the Osterhout Free Library, both on South Franklin Street in Wilkes-Barre. They have excellent microfilm collections of local newspapers. The Osterhout also has a nice set of high school sports scrapbooks, which could be a time saver. Contact town historical societies as well.</p><p>Colleges: Try college libraries for yearbooks. Sometimes, however, a college maintains old yearbooks in a separate office, which could require special permission for researchers.</p><p>The same local newspaper microfilms that cover high school sports cover the colleges as well.</p><p>For colleges and universities across the region, not just in Wyoming Valley, go to the school&#8217;s website, and look for a link to the campus library system. Some institutions, Penn State being a good example, have extensive sports archives there. If they&#8217;re available online, you&#8217;re in business. Otherwise you&#8217;ll have to survey the archive online to see what&#8217;s available. Since student newspapers cover sports, see if the school has a student paper archive.</p><p>There are other levels of area sports. Whether you&#8217;re dealing with amateur baseball, semi-pro basketball, amateur golf, minor league baseball or hockey, amateur or pro boxing or young-adult community sports, you will have to do the bulk of your research at a microfilm reader, plowing through reams of archived newspapers.</p><p>It would be nice if someday someone would compile histories of these latter sports in Northeastern Pennsylvania, but so far that has not happened.</p><p>Note: Most sports that we enjoy in this area today began in the 1890s or later. Don&#8217;t be surprised if older news stories, and even yearbooks, list players by last name only. That&#8217;s the way athletes were referred to years ago.</p><p>Be aware also that some ancestral sports have faded into history. A century and more ago competitive bike riding was a very big deal here and elsewhere. So was town baseball that welcomed barnstorming big-leaguers for guest appearances.</p><p>So put on your game face, genealogically speaking. Fight hard, and you&#8217;ll finish first in your league.</p><p>Joining the DAR: Do you have ancestors connected with America&#8217;s War of Independence? Would you like to join the Daughters of the American Revolution or its affiliated groups? If so, the DAR will help you. There&#8217;s a free genealogy workshop scheduled for 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Aug. 27 at the Hoyt Memorial Library, Wyoming Avenue, Kingston. Presenters will be Cynthia Brenner and Kathleen Smith of the DAR&#8217;s Shawnee Fort Chapter. Bring all relevant paperwork that you have. To reserve your place by Aug. 23 email smithkdar2001@hotmail.com or call 570 704-9809.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Tom Mooney Out on a Limb </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_TOM_MOONEY-5.jpg</photo0><caption0>Tom Mooney Out on a Limb </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Tom Mooney</p><p>Out on a Limb</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Tom Mooney is a Times Leader genealogy columnist. Reach him at tommooney42@gmail.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Out on a limb: Uncovering the history of past athletes