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Week 12 - Final Post

Today marked a significant milestone for me and my fellow interns as we gathered for the Internship Showcase over Zoom. As we proudly presented our work on the Olustee project, the event became a testament to the power of historical preservation and the impact of recognizing the forgotten heroes of the past. The Olustee project aims to shed light on a pivotal but often overlooked event in American history - the Battle of Olustee during the Civil War - but our mission was to honor the brave Union men who lost their lives in that battle, ensuring their sacrifices were not buried in the annals of time. Though the task seemed daunting, each one of us was driven by a passion for history and the desire to contribute to a meaningful cause. While our group took the stage, it was encouraging to see the listening and interested faces of our peers and professors. We were able to share our methods, rewards, and challenges with the audience, and the creation of the presentation itself was a fun, co
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Week 11 - Wrapping Things Up

With the semester winding down and the Internship Showcase just a week away, the Olustee interns have turned their attention towards creating a presentation and starting on our final papers.  At our team meeting Tuesday, Dr. Gannon basically told us to "wrap things up" or finish the tasks we currently have and leave it at a good starting point for future interns to take over. This next week will be devoted to presenting. Since there is a group of Olustee interns (Adaeze Nwigwe, Brett Nystrom, Brendan Jordan, and myself) we will be presenting as a group. To work collaboratively, we have created a shared Google Slides document and will be adding our own slides discussing our individual work to present next Friday.  As for my internship task, I have essentially finished collecting sources for the 7th Connecticut regiment, and had gotten pretty far on the 54th Massachussets men. Future interns can work on the biographies and continue source collection for these men - but their de
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Week 10 - Continuing Research

This week, I made continued progress in my research on the men of the 7th Connecticut regiment. Thanks to the valuable Record of Service provided by Dr. Gannon, I  was able to search and link all the men's names to the corresponding page numbers in the research spreadsheet. Moreover, I am planning to dedicate this weekend to meticulously examining the service records of the 54th Massachusetts men. While most of the men could be traced through the Record of Service, there were a few individuals whose information I couldn't find there. To fill in these gaps, I've been exploring alternative sources like the National Archive and Ancestry. Interestingly, I discovered that the search results varied significantly depending on the format of the names. For instance, searching "John Smith" yielded no results, but when I reversed it to "Smith, John," I found several relevant records. To ensure a comprehensive search, I've been exploring various name formats on
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Week 9 - 7th Connecticut

There is not too much to update on this week - I've been working on collecting information about the 7th Connecticut regiment and finalizing their determinations, or, whether or not they were likely killed at the Battle of Olustee.  While most of the men in the 35th USCT regiment were relatively easy to research, the 7th Connecticut men have little sources available at the National Archives or on Ancestry, two sites the project uses significantly. Finding their information takes a little more work and time, but I have been able to find a few men so far using books available on the Internet Archive and some other sources accessible in the Google Drive!  Dr. Gannon also wants me to look at the 54th Massachusetts regiment and clean up their lists a bit. I've made a spreadsheet for this, but haven't done too much research on them as I continue to focus on the 7th Connecticut.  Lastly, Jessie plans to schedule some virtual interviews for those of us who did not get to interview
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Week 8 - Story Day!

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This week has been quite eventful as I made significant progress in completing the final determinations for the men of the 35th USCT regiment. With just a few biographies left to complete, I can proudly say that the unit is almost entirely done! This accomplishment brings a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, knowing that I have contributed to preserving the history of these brave men. To discuss my progress and seek feedback, I had a one-on-one meeting with Dr. Gannon on Wednesday. It was a productive session, and she expressed her contentment with the work done so far. Furthermore, she assigned me a new project: the 7th Connecticut regiment. This particular regiment has received little attention in terms of research and documentation, presenting an exciting opportunity for me to delve into uncharted territory. I am enthusiastic about uncovering the stories and contributions of these overlooked soldiers. Today marked an exciting event called Story Day, during which we had the privi
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Week 7 - Upcoming Story Day

This week, my primary focus was again on completing the final determinations for the 35th USCT and conducting research on the unidentified individuals among them. I still have not found any information on the men in the repositories I have used (Ancestry and National Archives), but I will reach out to my team for some guidance on other repositories to look in. On Tuesday, our team gathered for a meeting led by Dr. Gannon. She shared her experiences working with the VLP (Veterans Legacy Program) Institute and expressed her vision for the Olustee project going forward. It was an insightful discussion that shed light on the project's future direction in bringing these men's stories to light; in the upcoming week, each team member will have an individual meeting with Dr. Gannon to provide a comprehensive progress update and receive further guidance on our next steps. Looking ahead, a VLP Story Day is scheduled for next Friday, July 7th. During this event, we were asked if we would
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Week 6 - Bridging the Gap

In continuing to work on the task I have been assigned over the past few weeks, I am pleased to share that I am nearing completion of the biographies for the individuals assigned to me. It has been an engaging journey to delve into the lives of these remarkable men - however, there are still a few outstanding cases where I have encountered limited available data in the Google Drive. To gather sources and work on their biographies, I have expanded my research efforts to include additional repositories such as Ancestry and the National Archives. Exploring these extensive databases has proven to be an invaluable resource, providing me with a deeper understanding of the lives and experiences of these veterans. It has also allowed me to verify certain details and make the necessary final determinations for those individuals with insufficient information in the Google Drive; further adding to my historical toolkit, in terms of individual research. During our team meeting this week, the upcom
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