Greenburgh Public Library Blog

Hidden Treasures From The Local History Room: Connecting The Past toThe Present

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing the Local History Room’s photographs for a research question I received via email. During the course of my search, I came across an newspaper clipping from October 18, 1950. This clipping happened to be from a long forgotten local newspaper, The Hartsdale News. A short blurb caught my attention. I suddenly realized I knew of one of families mentioned in this piece, which happened to be an engagement announcement.

Excitedly, I scanned the clipping (reprinted above with permission from the family) to a flash drive and uploaded it into a Facebook message to the son of the man who was written about in the announcement. My friend emailed me back the next morning, delighted in the surprising find. He had also shared the news of this “find” with his mother who was also written about in the announcement. One might suspect that they never read the article, or had forgotten that the article even existed.  

I have lived in Hartsdale since I was born in 1960, so I expect to come across familiar names of people from time to time when doing research in the Local History Room, and this was indeed one of those times!!!   

I belong to several informal groups on Facebook. One of the groups, called “People From Hartsdale,” is devoted to sharing experiences of  people who have lived in Hartsdale at one time or another. I often see really cool pictures from the past shared by its members. In fact, I remember one day I saw a collection of color photos that happen to include my parents from the 1960’s, which I had never seen. Seeing those pictures of my mom and dad as they were in their 30’s was quite a thrill for me, and through social media I was able to connect with people I have not spoken with in many years.

These are just a few examples of the power technology can have when it connects us not only to other people, but
to our community’s past.