Kristin Grau
May 6, 2023
Having built my digitization skills through Appalachian State University’s Belk Library Digital Scholarship & Initiatives (DSI) over the past summer, I became more interested in digitization initiatives. My later decision to apply to the Digital Watauga Project internship position came from my desire to expand on my digitization skills and a general interest in archives. What interests me about archives is that they reflect different perspectives and attitudes throughout history. Archival institutions are important sources of information for answering questions about the past and clarifying family history.
As an intern, one project that I have worked on is the digitization of Series 01 of the Jimmy and Margaret Lail Johnson Collection. This series consisted of the Teams family scrapbook, which contained images and documents related to the Teams, Johnson, and Greene families. This project was especially intriguing to me because it is an example of a curated collection of familial photographs and documents that reveal what the Teams family thought was important enough to preserve for future generations.
Genealogical tracking sheet on William Fred Teams, from the Jimmy and Margaret Lail Johnson Collection, Digital Watauga Project (Jim-Lai-01-066).
This specific document surveys the life of William Fred Teams. What stood out to me here is the written notation that provides information on the death of William Fred Teams and Willie Harmon. Fred died from a suicide in Wilkes County while Willie died in the Korean War. Tracing the history of ancestors can impart patterns of hard times and offer a better understanding of the challenges that they faced throughout their lives. This document, and others like it in the scrapbook, led me to think about the importance of genealogical research.
Class Roll, Boone High School, 1930. Image from the Jimmy and Margaret Lail Johnson Collection, Digital Watauga Project (Jim-Lai-01-009-a & d).
As a baseball fan, though, my most exciting discovery in the family photo album was Coaker Triplett’s name in a Boone High School yearbook. Coaker Triplett (1911-1992), a Boone native, was an American Major League Baseball outfielder that played for the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, and Philadelphia Phillies. Triplett is buried at Mountlawn Memorial Park and Gardens and has been inducted into the Appalachian State Hall of Fame and Watauga Sports Hall of Fame. Since baseball has always been a way for me to bond with family, make new friends, and reminisce with old friends, this finding served as a connection to the High Country’s past.
—————————————————————————————
Coaker Triplett’s statistical record can be found online here: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/triplco01.shtml.
Series 01 of the Jimmy and Margaret Lail Johnson Collection is currently in metadata review and should be live on Digital Watauga later this summer.