There are not many places besides the farm where my ancestors worked for any length of time. My mother is the only ancestor I have (in the last one hundred and fifty years at least) who had a non-farm job that could be referred to as long term employment. She spent most of her elementary teaching career at this school. It’s referred to as the “Grade School” on the early 20th century postcard, but for as long as I can remember it was “Lincoln School.”

A recent Ebay search for “carthage Illinois” located the postcard shown in the blog post. I was looking for photographs, letters, or perhaps postcards with writing on them when the familiar image came across my screen. Mom taught in at least three of the rooms during her career–the rooms on the left side on the top two floors and the lower floor on the right hand side. The north side of the building is the right hand side of the picture.

Locating the picture with its generic name reminded me that the names of many things change and that one should not always include the “correct” name of a building, location, etc. when conducting a search. Searches requiring the word Lincoln as part of the name (eg.  “Lincoln Elementary,” Lincoln Grade School,” etc.) would not have located the item.