Schools and Their Borders Change

Have you thought about how the schools in your area have changed?

I am not talking about educational offerings or clothing styles. There are changes that impact genealogists. Districts have consolidated, buildings have closed, boundaries have changed. What about in the area where your ancestor lived? Do you know what school your ancestor would have attended--if he or she even attended school? 

In the 19th century, educational "boundaries" were more fluid than they were later. They certainly were more fluid than they are today. If you have an urban ancestor, do you know what school within the city he would have attended? (An older post on this blog discusses locating a district's boundaries for a rural school.)

This picture contains a "letter" from each of the schools in the Carl Sandburg Community College district when the display was made. The picture was taken on 16 December 2013 and was made before August of 1992. Quite a few of these school districts no longer exist, having merged in with others over the twenty year time span.

Note: I know some of the schools represented by these letters, but not all. I'll have add determining what they all represent to my to do list.