Thus far, our project researchers have located several wonderful photographs of strikers in Ancestry.com family trees. These photographs will help us produce complete and compelling profiles for these strikers in time for the project launch on September 7, 2019. They also connect us to relatives of strikers who may have personal stories about the strike.
To contact the owner of a photograph of a striker, we ask project researchers to please use the following message template:
Dear _________,
My name is _________ and I am volunteer for a public history project at UMass Boston, where we are researching the men who were involved in the 1919 Boston Police Strike. Our research indicates that a man in your family tree was among the strikers: _________, married to _______, with children _________________ . These men were protesting terrible working conditions and all lost their jobs as a result of the strike. Here is a link to a copy of _______’s duty roster card preserved by the Boston Police Department.
We would be very interested in any photographs or stories from your family’s perspective about __________. Would you consider sharing photographs or stories with the project? We are collecting them through our project website at https://blogs.umb.edu/bpstrike1919/uploading-photographs/.
You can learn more about the project’s goals, progress, staff and upcoming events (including a public event at UMass Boston on September 7, 2019 commemorating the men who participated in the strike) at https://blogs.umb.edu/bpstrike1919.
Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!
Sincerely,
________________________
Good luck!
