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Down the rabbit hole

Other / Unknown · Litchfield, Connecticut · 1867

3 documents · 1 independent account · 1 cited source we haven't found yet

3 documents tell this story. They trace back to 1 independent account. 1 cited source we haven't found yet.

The route

  1. One encounter the reported sighting this case is about
  2. 3 documents that tell it, as we collected them
  3. 1 independent account behind those documents
  4. 2 copies reprints or cross-posts of the same text: not extra witnesses
  5. 1 cited source named in the documents: 1 not found yet

Copies are not confirmations: thirty papers printing one story is still one account.

Rabbit hole: Other / Unknown · Litchfield, Connecticut · 18673 documents tell this story. They trace back to 1 independent account. 1 cited source we haven't found yet. Each independent account is one row; time runs left to right. The earliest document we hold in each account is ringed. A full list follows the picture.Account 13 documents · 2 reprintsTIME (when each document was published) →Oct 19Oct 20Oct 21Oct 22Oct 23Oct 24Oct 25Oct 26Reprint · White Cloud Kansas Chief (White Cloud, Kan.) · Newspaper, Oct 24, 1867White Cloud Kansas ChiefReprint · The Shasta Courier (Shasta, Calif.) · Image 3 of The Shasta courier (Shasta, Calif.), October 26, 1867 · Newspaper, Oct 26, 1867The Shasta Couriercited, not yet found · Amenia Times · Newspaper, undated · search for itAmenia Times · not yet foundEarliest found · Prescott Journal (Prescott, Wis.) · Image 2 of Prescott journal (Prescott, Wis.), October 19, 1867 · Newspaper, Oct 19, 1867EARLIEST FOUNDPrescott JournalNewspapersame text (reprint)Earliest foundcited, not yet found

Each shape is one document; open it to go to where we found it. The same graph as a list is below.

Why these records are connected

  • 2 copies: the copy detector found the same words in a later document, so it sits in the same row as the account it copies.
  • Why these documents are one case. The case matcher joined them because:
    • The Shasta courier & Prescott journal: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quoted passages are nearly identical; they describe the same details; same place; same year

Every document, as a list

  1. Account 1 3 documents

How to read this

  • Time runs left to right by publication date. Very long empty stretches are cut short (the axis shows how many years were skipped); undated documents sit in their own column.
  • One row per independent account. A reprint, re-upload or cross-post carries the same text, so it stays in its account's row and never counts as a second witness.
  • Earliest found (ringed) is the earliest document we hold for that account. It is not proof of the first telling: an earlier one may exist that we haven't collected.
  • Arrows run from a document to a source it names. A dashed shape is a source a document cites that we haven't found yet; its link searches a public archive for it, and a hit there is a lead, not a confirmation.

About the numbers

  • Only documents we've collected are counted; retellings elsewhere on the web aren't counted yet.
  • Documents are matched by shared text and by the sources they name, by plain rules with no model in the loop. A match can be wrong; tell us.

The deepest rabbit holes →

Where next

Every rabbit hole → · How we tell copies from independent accounts