What do you notice? What do you wonder?
When looking over the different ads, I decided to stick to California and see how things were going on there. Most of the ads were to reunite family members or find people that haven't been seen for a while. I decided to look over one about Rebecca Seals looking for her son. It says she is from Indiana, but she is looking for her son that travelled to California. I noticed that she claimed he left five years prior to the ad being released, however she said the last time she talked to him was three years prior. I just wonder why it took her so long to report or look for her son.
Time/Place:
This ad was released on September 3, 1892 from Indiana, but was also in Los Angeles considering that's the last place she heard from her son. During this time the second Industrial Revolution rose, and slowly after came a depression. I think maybe the mother wanted to get in touch with her son at the start of a difficult time.
Implications/Conclusions:
I originally chose this ad with the intention to see how ads were across California, but after reviewing a vast portion of the ads listed, I decided to go with one about a mother looking for her son. In any time a mother looking for her children is important, especially during a national crisis. Obviously being an African American woman at the time did not help her in most situations, and losing a child will just add to the stress the world has brought upon them.
http://informationwanted.org/items/show/2208
Hi Aria! I appreciated the last lines of your post where you considered what it meant for Rebecca Seals as a mother trying to locate her son. I'm also curious about their spotty communication. It seems like they had reconnected (or had stayed connected) but had lost touch after three years. Since this ad was placed in 1892, we have to also consider all of the life events that could have happened to both of them in the time since the Civil War ended, and since they were separated.