week 17 - "take up geneology and map out your family history:



Doris Jacqueline Kronshagen
(Cheryl's mother)



Elizabeth Mary Buttgereit
(Doris' mother)



Auguste Brommant
(Elizabeth's mother)





     Since I have semi-retired, I have a little more time to devote to mapping our family history.  I started with my mother and her side of the family because she and all eight of her siblings are alive and can remember faces and names and dates.  If one can't remember, a phone call to another sister usually produces the answer.  Also I have access to pictures of a lot of her ancestors and sometimes the names and dates will be on the back of the picture.   So I haven't had to utilize ancestry.com or the latter-day saints site yet.

     Yesterday I spent the day in Pana with my mom.  We visited cemeteries again and I took pictures of tombstones of grandparents and great-grandparents.  It took awhile to find the graves, especially on a windy day, since most cemeteries seem to be located on top of a hill.  We were trying to hurry since the wind made it pretty cold out there.  But what a great way to get birth, death and even marriage dates.  We also visited my mother's oldest sister, Aunt Liz.  At age 88, she still has a pretty sharp mind and was able to identify people in some pictures that I had.  Sitting around her kitchen table and listening to stories told by my aunt and mother, I learned that my grandfather rolled his own cigarettes and made his own home brew.  He started it in the kitchen behind the stove. My mother remembers sucking on the hose to start the flow to fill the bottles and capping the bottles for him and storing them in the basement.  I also heard a story that I was told NOT to "put in any book I might be making".  We then visited my Aunt Marian, who resides in a nursing home in Pana now.  It was her 87th birthday, so we took her a few gifts and started talking about ancestors.  She opened her dresser drawer beside the bed and took out a packet of pictures.  Looking through them, she came across a picture that I have never seen of my father.  She also found a picture of my grandfather that I had never seen.  And, bless her, she gave them both to me. 

     One of my cousin's sons has done a lot of family research and he found a geneologist in Germany who had already compiled a lot of our family history.  A lot of that research goes back to the 1500's.  What I am trying to do is to add pictures and some stories to the names and dates in an attempt to bring that history to life.  I think it helps to know what your great-grandmother looked like and to hear some stories that her children remember about her. 

    When it comes time to research my father's side, it won't be as easy.  I don't have as many pictures; and family members on that side are not around any longer to ask.  I might have to use an internet site at that time.  But this research has been fun; and I find it to be a little addictive.  Sometimes I wake in the middle of the night and think of a question that I need to ask my mother.  If I thought that she would be awake at 3 am, I would probably get up and call.