The WPA.
A good deal for genealogists.
What I really should say, a really good deal for
genealogists.
It was a timely federal government bonanza
and it really helps us with our family history today.
So what is the WPA?
It's one of many federal relief programs that were started
after the Great Depression.
Well, during the Great Depression actually.
The WPA is just one arm of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New
Deal program to help get the country back on its feet.
It began being called the Works Progress
Administration in 1935.
But by 1939, it was renamed the Work Projects Administration.
Now the differences in these titles
are important to remember.
So we'll talk about that in a later lesson.
It really ended-- all the WPA and most of these programs--
in 1943.
And if you think about it that's World War II time.
That had a great impact on these programs.
And we'll talk about that in a later lesson.
What these programs did was enabled income
for some people who were out of work.
Many of the programs and the jobs that were created
had about a six month time limit,
so that other people would have a chance to earn an income.
Timing perfection.
Oh, I think it was, because the Great Depression lasted
from about 1929 to 1939.
Historians don't always agree on the exact years, that's why
I've got it in brackets there.
But part of the New Deal program created
a lot of different relief programs, not just the WPA.
It was the Public Works Administration.
You may have seen a sidewalk or a park building with a PWA
in the cement.
We'll talk a little bit more about that in just a minute.
CCC is the Civilian Conservation Corps.
The NYA is the National Youth Administration, which
put a lot of youth to work.
TVA is the Tennessee Valley Authority.
You may have learned in school about what
happened when they moved a lot of graves down in Tennessee
and they flooded the whole area.
There's a lot more to learn about that.
The FDIC still serves you well today for your bank account.
It's the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation,
protects what you've put in the bank.
Social Security began about in 1937,
and that's another one of these New Deal programs.
WPA, we just talked about what that means.
And FERA, you've probably seen that in newspaper articles
today, it's the Federal Emergency Relief
Administration.
You can see just what the titles of these things, all
the important work that was connected with them.
Like with so many other government programs,
so many of these operated at various government levels.
And it also had people working in them
that had various skill levels.
So you may find them at the local, the county,
the regional, and state, as well as federal.
So that means we've got a lot of different archives,
and historical societies, and other places
to look for the records today.
There are many books and articles on different parts
of the New Deal program.
And I'm going to concentrate a lot on the WPA today,
but I just wanted to let you know that there's
so much more out there.
In the handout that accompanies all of these lessons
will give you some details on just some of those.
It's extensive and it's also fascinating,
especially if you love statistics and history
like I do.
Then we had World War II.
So as great as these programs were, these things ended.
And we'll talk about the reasons for that as we get on.
Just some of the work products that
came out of the WPA and these other arms.
As I mentioned, there were park buildings, sidewalks,
bridges were built, bridges were repaired.
A lot of forestry projects were done, especially
under the auspices of the CCC.
Murals were painted by artists in courthouses,
schools, post offices.
You may have seen one of these today.
There's even a few that exist in prisons.
People sold clothes, may have made quilts.
Other people taught them how to make the quilts and sew
clothes.
Child care was taught, homemaking.
I've seen pictures of people being taught how to can goods.
A lot of people didn't know how to do that.
Others wrote plays, poetry, guides
to states which are almost like tourist guides.
Just seeing this article here from newspapers.com,
an the honor was paid to an artist for their courthouse
mural project.
Tons of newspaper articles from that time period
and even after the projects ended.
That tell a lot about the projects in specific areas.
Let's just mention a little bit about the CCC,
because I always get this question when somebody
is inquiring about the WPA.
As I said, that stands for the Civilian Conservation Corps.
There were camp and state newspapers.
Now the individual camps is where the people
were sent off to work.
There could have maybe been 10 in one state, 5
in another state.
But some of these had their own newspaper,
sometimes there was a statewide newspaper.
You might find some of these, as well as
some of the records of the people
who were in these camps at a state archive, state
historical society.
A lot of states today have memory projects or encyclopedia
projects.
And as part of these, they're producing a lot
of pictures that are online.
Some of them even have the people identified.
If you've got pictures of maybe grandpa, great grandpa in a CCC
camp, make sure you share that with a historical site
or your online somewhere, so other people
can see who's there.
The federal level CCC records are at the National Archives
part of Record Group 35.
And the National Archives website
has a lot more information on what's in that record group.
Now not all of those records are online, but the descriptions
about what's there, that's what you'll find.
Now what you see on the right hand side
is an article from ancestry.com for one
of the state-wide CCC newspapers,
and this one is actually from Utah.
You notice the picture there, it says, Utah men get medals.
Now if I were you and I had someone in the CCC camp
in Utah, I'd be looking at this article.
And I'd also look at the rest of them that are on ancestry.com.
Now the CCC workers.
You might find some online lists of workers.
There's not a lot of them, but people have abstracted things
here and there.
Some people have identified photos, who's in the photos.
They may have identified five of the eight people.
Others may not have any one, so if you can
contribute that would be great.
There are some wonderful histories
of the various CCC camps and CCC projects that I found online.
Now what about your family member.
Do you know where they worked in a CCC camp.
It might have been more than one.
My father-in-law said he worked in Montana in the CCC camps.
Might your ancestor have worked someplace
that might have been a little more pleasant to work.
Look at this.
Territory of Hawaii had CCC records.
ArchiveGrid is a free manuscript finding aid that's online.
ArchiveGrid.org.
You can also access it through World Cat, which
we'll talk about later on.
Now wouldn't it be great if your ancestor actually
worked in a CCC camp in Hawaii.
I've never been to Hawaii.
I've been to 49 states.
Maybe I'll go work for a CCC camp.
Oh, but we don't have those today.
We'll talk more about some of these finding aids
later on in one of these lessons.