How do I find out the history of a 1890 class ring,and how do I go about finding the family?

Question

My father found a WSU class ring from 1890.....how would I find out who it belongs to? Or how who would I contact to find out?

My father found this ring in the como mountians in nevada.How would I contact the Alumni office? Or who else would know the history? Or who else should I contact???

Answer 1

Alumni Office at the school. Old college yearbooks if there were any, might be a class portrait at the U library or archives.

Also, depending on where he found it - like if it was in the attic perhaps a house title history would help.

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There are multiple WSUs so you could check and see which ones were around in 1890. Are there initials on the ring? Alumni offices are always listed on the school's homepage - as they keep track of alumni to hit them up for money later. :) Perhaps e-mailing them a digtal photo and the details might help eliminate some of the schools (based on symbols).

Answer 2

What a find.
Much depends on where you found it. If it was in the house, your first option is to trace the history of who lived in the house. That would be through deeds (a local title company might help you on that one). IF the house did not exist way back then.. it is possible that it belonged to an ancestor of someone who did live there. If you can get names of former owners.. then you could try to locate their relatives, and see if you can make contact. My suggestion would be that any contact would be someone "open", like "we found a family memento, can you offer info so we KNOW it connects to you".
If there is reason to think that it was there from the early 1900s (age of house), you can also try to connect the old ownership of the house to census records. The 1890 census no longer exists.. but if the family shows a son of a possible age, that is a clue. Many class rings had initials engraved.
I also hope that the school may have records to cross check, looking again for someone with the right initials.
This may be a real challenge.. but I've seen such stories happen. For outside help.. there is a tv program here in the US called History Detectives that specializes in such topics.

Answer 3

I am including the following links to help you in your investigation.
Start with WSU and then try surrounding community sites.
Keep asking questions there are many pople who love to assist with this sort of thing. Keep us all posted and I hope these links provide the right direction!

Answer 4

i'm from Vancouver,BC myself and in accordance to Wikipedia, Bell became into the 1st to patent the telephone, overview source under. so a techniques as being "an egregious lie" this could be slightly harsh notably for something that, no count number if genuine or not, the international could proceed spinning. i don't understand the place in Canada you're from, yet in BC, i became into in no way taught that with out Canadian participation in WWI, the conflict could of been lost and that's an analogous tale with the B of B in WWII. i'm confident Canadian involvement performed its area in the wars; that I found out at college and at homestead.