Seeking Research Assistance

by Nathan Natas 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Nathan Natas

  I'd like to get data about how many "partakers" there were at Memorial observations for each year from, say, 1930 to 1948.

  This information is most easily obtained from WT Yearbooks for each year, but I don't have access to any of them.

  I have searched the Watchtower CDs published by RAI for the years 1920 thru 1939 thinking that maybe there would be a brief annual report article like there has been in more recent years, and there is no such summary article.

  If anyone has access to ANY of the Yearbooks I've mentioned, I would be deeply grateful for any help. Every data point counts! If by chance you can provide data for even earlier years, I would also be happy to have it. When the data has been collected I intend to publish it here for all to "enjoy" for free.

  Thanks in advance.

  PS - For reasons of authentication, I would like tp get photocopies or digital scans (jpg, pdf, bmp) of the Yearbook pages with the requested data. I will be happy to compensate anyone for their time and expenses to get this information. I'm not asking anyone to work for free unless they really, really want to.
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  dungbeetle

  No, they are NOT readily avaliable in the yearbooks, like I told you. I can find nothing like that in the ones I have dating back to 1933.
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  Nathan Natas

  DungBeetle, I don't recall you ever sharing this information with me before.

  I guess that settles it.
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  dungbeetle

  I finally had to clean up my email, so I don't know if I said it or not. If I forgot, sorry.
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  Nathan Natas

  No problem, DB.

  Perhaps someone will have access to some other source of this data. If not, then, as Bobby Kennedy used to say, "Que Sirhan, Sirhan."
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  dungbeetle

  Sorry if I was cranky...I was in a hurry and typing fast and was being really concise.

  It seems as though, as long as there was only one group (everyone going to heaven any minute now yadaydayda)they counted EVERYONE..just the whole group only, since everyone took "as they felt they were consecrated to God" or some such thing.

  Exactly when they began counting 'only' partakers would be after the two-class system was put into effect.

  But they were definitely counting memorial attenders as far back as 1899.

  Dungbeetle...of the 'oops I goofed class'...
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  Nathan Natas

  For those years when everyone partook, the attendance figures alone would be all I needed, since attendance=partakers.

  What year did the "two class" system go into effect? It would be interesting to see if there was a big drop in partakers that year as many realized they had a "different hope."