The prompt of 'Teams' immediately turns my thoughts to sport, to ancestors who played as part of a sporting team, especially as I watch the Commonwealth Games on TV each evening.
During precious leisure hours, our ancestors may have played - or been involved in - a variety sports, many involving teams. Cricket, various forms of football and other team sports may have been played by our ancestors. Some of the sports our ancestors played have survived almost unchanged, while others have evolved greatly over the years and others still are rarely if ever played today.
Finding the evidence of our ancestors involvement in sporting teams and be challenging. Newspapers are a great source of information, with match reports, player profiles and statistics often included, especially in local newspapers. Administration records and meeting minutes may still exist, and long-standing sporting teams which still exist today often have many old records, rolls, trophies and memorabilia on display or stored in archives.
Even if they were not themselves players on a team, our ancestors may still have been involved. Were they part of the administration of a team or involved in umpiring, scoring, grounds-keeping or maintenance? Or were they supporters, attending matches when they could, cheering on the players?
Discovering information about any teams our ancestors belonged to or supported helps us to flesh out their lives, adding detail to their likes and dislikes, giving colour to our knowledge of their daily lives.
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