Often while doing historical research, I'll come across secondary source materials that contain mentions of unfortunate tragedies and just simply say: "two crew members were killed."
Who were they? Why do these sources not give names? It shouldn't take a half hour and 12 different sources to find their names! Now I could understand if, for some reason, names were not known. But in that case, the authors of the secondary sources should be drawing attention to that fact (ie: the two unidentified pilots were killed).
The thing is, I usually can find their names. I just have to sift through dozens of remembrance articles written in the last 10-15 years to find them.
For instance: in doing some research on the history of Toronto, I came across the mention of Camp Little Norway and their connection to the city during the Second World War. Articles were quick to draw attention to the fact that, during a training mission, a Royal Norwegian Air Force plane had collided with the Toronto Island ferry, The Sam McBride, which is still in use today. In the collision, the ferry was damaged and both occupants of the plane perished. And as far as many recent news stories and books are concerned, that's where the story ends.
I must admit there is a reason this struck me as odd, more so than it might have to other people. My grandmother's fiancé was one of the occupants of that plane. On June 20th, 1941 student pilot Tron Harsvik and his Instructor, Lieutenant Finn Strand Kjos of the RNAF were killed in that collision. In my attempt to correct the Wikipedia article, I had quite a bit of trouble trying to find the name of the instructor as he and Tron were not mentioned in any of the articles or books about the collision that came up in my google search. I could find the date, the extent of the damage to the ferry, the exact model of the plane, and lots of information about Camp Little Norway, but nowhere could I find their names. Why did their names not matter to these authors? This information IS available. Why would they purposefully leave it out?
In M. Jane Fairburn's Along the Shore: Rediscovering Toronto's Waterfront Heritage, she even mentions that the presence of Camp Little Norway on Toronto Island led to more than a few marriages between the RNAF boys and local girls, just like my grandmother had planned. Mike Filey's book Toronto Sketches 11: "The Way We Were" even goes so far as to credit Lt. Kjos with taking "evasive action" to avoid a more serious outcome - yet he still does not name him. The Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, and Bracebridge Examiner have all recently (in the last 10 years) published articles that included a mention of this crash in an attempt to "Remember Little Norway" with not a single one stating the names of the two men. In this case, the two men killed were thousands of miles away from their homes
So I guess this only leaves my ultimate question: why are the details of this tragedy considered worth remembering when the lives lost are not? If this camp was such an important part of Toronto history that articles are being written in the present to remember it, why are the men who lost their lives not worth remembering? Certainly my grandmother never forgot.
This is by no means an isolated incident. It is not limited to wartime narratives either. This is just one, slightly personal example of a problem I run into a lot as a social historian. What made this example stand out to me is the fact that I know the story that is missing; I have personally heard stories of the pain this tragedy caused my grandmother, her family, and Tron's family. It's easy to find great stories, but it is so sad to see journalists and historians ignoring the fact that things like this happened to real people. Removing the names inhibits the reader's ability to truly connect with narrative on a deeper, more personal level.
While I have highlighted a number of sources that have left Tron's name out of the Little Norway narrative, I should also note that there are a few that DO mention his name. Though many misspell his name as "Trond," Ted Barris' Behind the Glory: Canada's Role in the Allied Air War is one of the only sources I have found thus far to not only include the names of Tron and Lt. Kjos, but also spell Tron's name correctly! Props to Ted Barris on this one!
Photos of my family at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum with a plane just like the one Tron would have been flying that fateful day in June 1941 (yes, my dad is wearing a GoPro - he was about to fly in the Lancaster Bomber).