Great post!! Thank you for that, and your pictures. I'm thankful that I'm here, too, and not in the traffic, congestion, and poor air quality that I lived with for almost 20 years (in Dallas)...let's count our blessings!

Sharon

Amen, Sharon, and thanks for answering. I was so afraid that I'd just make people angry, and it was not my intention at all. Funny how only six years here could make me so complacent, forgetting the reality of what I'd left behind. I needed to see the photos to remind myself of the brutal western conditions.

One irony in that is the fact that I'm a sculptor, and I once did a sculpture of my grandparents, watching the sky and sifting garden sand through their fingers. The title of the piece is "Drought". I think it's now in the museum of San Bernardino County, where they were pioneers.
Pat

"Those of you who have lived here all your lives are used to having the summer rains and being able to grow huge crops. This extended dry heat is foreign to you."

Bwahahahaaa!!! Oh, man, that made me laugh so hard, it hurt!

I'm just teasing. LOL I think we all know what you mean but I couldn't let that little tidbit slip by. ;-)

While I love, love, loved living in Oklahoma all those years, I'm definitely counting my blessings up here in our new (relatively cooler & wetter) place this year.

Diane

No, Diane, what I meant is every year of seeing not a drop of rain from May to November, and holding your breath to see where the next fire will start. That kind of extended dry heat. I know, I know. I forgive you. Tee hee.

Where are you located now?

Pat

I just swallowed my gum! :-x

Sculpture? Do you have a website or pictures?

Great pictures! I love the area around Hanford/Richland WA, I've only been there one time and could not get over how beautiful I found those treeless hills. My friend there can grow grapes and poppies like crazy, but I don't know that she tries much else. Picking blackberries while wading in the Columbia river out in front of the house is a pretty good payoff though. (I was there in an unseasonally cool moment in the summer)

What I, as a fifth-generation central Oklahoma gardener who did not learn enough from her father.... have tried to learn is, well, to learn. I read what y'all say has done well for you in this weather, and next year I'll plant that if I can get it. I notice how well the eggplants and mysterious Armenian thing did and write that down & look for other Armenian things, look at Chandra's trellis and think about whether or not I can do that. I'll spend the fall & winter (since I pretty sure any seeds I plant right now will fail) improving the soil, and try again. That's what my daddy would have done too. Learn and shake his head, and try again. As my Aunt Velma would say, "this ain't the dustbowl".

I don't have a website any more, since I'm retired, but the ladies in the group should appreciate the fact that I once maintained one for an international group of 40 women nature artists. Over 800 images of the most amazing work. I think some of them created a new site when I retired. I'll see if I can find it if anyone wants to see.
For anyone who'd like to see my work, I can post some of it online, maybe on MySpace or something. It isn't really appropriate to put it on the garden pages. I generally did sporting dogs, but also some western wildlife (wolves, cougars, etc) and once in a while a western one, like a moody bull.

I was just standing at the sink, getting peppers ready for pickling and thinking random stuff about the Dust Bowl and whatever. It brought to mind not only the fact that we have A/C and freezers and drip irrigation these days, but also some thoughts of what the original settlers went through.

I know that my own family crossed the plains with the wagon trains of 1850. One of my grandfathers was a teamster (as in wagon team) with a run from San Bernardino up to Hollister over wide open country. Another one drove the famous 20-mule-team hitch out on the desert. I'll bet that a lot of you have some fabulous stories of what your grandparents and great-grandparents did, and maybe even some incredible photos to go along with the stories. My son-in-law's family were early settlers here and put in some of the roads we use today, but I think they did it with horses and wagons. Could we start a thread of how some of those pioneers coped with things like drought and flood and red clay? Can we, can we . . . please??????

Pat

Pat I seriously suspect artists don't retire entirely. Change directions maybe...is gardening your new direction or are you making other things too?

A thread about old family farming/gardening stories would be great, Oklahoma or otherwise, wisdom is wisdom.

Betty (MFA printmaking, NBCT middle school art teacher)

No, Betty, I don't suppose we ever do retire completely. My fingers still tend to get itchy for the feel of clay, and I think that one of these days I'll do something new. Actually, I've been thinking strongly of some Indian portraits. The problem is that I was a pro, doing production work, and handling the thing from start to finish myself. Creating the original piece, making the mold, doing the casting, and finishing it for shipment. Illness finally took it's toll. I did a few new pieces a couple of years ago, but found I just can't get back into the grind of the whole thing any more. My eyesight and hands are not what they used to be. That doesn't mean I'm finished completely. If you ever need tips for the kids in your classes . . . . . Smile. I was a 4-H leader for 15 years also.

The gardening is just an extension of something I've done for years, except that now I'm doing it in OK instead of the west. Got to keep busy at something creative, you know? Otherwise I'd be completely stir crazy.

If you think it's okay, I'll begin that thread. For some reason I think it would not only be really interesting, but also help us to stop and consider what some of our ancestors really had to contend with. Daunting work does not begin to cover it. Not even remotely.

If anyone likes to read mysteries, I've enjoyed a series by a lady named Donis Casey who writes about OK at the turn of the century and what farm life was like. I'm thinking she bases them someplace up around Muskogee, but am not positive about it. She's an OK native from way back. Great books.

Pat

Pat, I do know what you are talking about. I lived in Phoenix for a few years, as well as California. When we lived in Oklahoma, it was in the southeastern part where we had plenty of rain most times of the year, although we did do a mini-drought each year in the summer. Maybe three-ish months with no or little rain. I know that those on the western side of the state do go months and months without rain at times. And our very own Dawn knows quite well the feeling of holding her breath for the next fire.

Last fall, we moved to northeastern Missouri, about 20 miles west of Hannibal. We get less rain here than we did in OK but it falls at much more convenient times for me as a gardener.

I do love reading about history and especially how the pioneers made it. Have you read Bird Woman's story? She was an Indian, not a pioneer, but it's very interesting read for a gardener. I don't have the link handy but I bet someone here does.

Diane

My maternal grandfather (Herschel C Miller) was born in northern Alabama near the Georgia state line, and his grandparents lived on the Georgia side. My grandfathers parents must have died young (according to my grandmother, but I haven't found them) and the children scattered living in TN, AR, and TX and OR. He married my grandmother (Maude Ann Blassingame) who was a Texan and they lived in Erath, Comanche, and Parker County area of Texas. I wouldn't want to live there at all.

My grandfather was a capenter and mason and later they followed the work since he built mostly schools and churches, so they lived all over TX and OK and once in AR.

Finally they moved to the southern part of Carter County, Oklahoma and I think that they were so thrilled to be in one place and have trees that they thought their situation was great.

The southern Oklahoma area where they settled is very sandy and not like the red clay of most of that area. They had a large garden and grew the best onions. They had a grape arbor that was probably 35 feet long built into an arch and they grew lots of concord grapes. It was open on the north and south ends. When my grandmother had other tasks to do, like shelling beans, she would take them down to the arbor and sit under it. It seemed like there was always a nice breeze blowing through there.

There was a small field in between their house and my uncles house, and I think he grew the corn and potatoes because he had a tractor.

They had a chicken house and a small barn and a big fenced area where the chickens ran. I'm sure everything else they raised was in that same pen, but by the time I was old enough to remember, it was just chickens. My grandmother got up at daylight and started working. The cemetery was a mile away and she would take her hoe and walk down the sandy road and keep the graves of the relatives in shape. This isn't far from where Dawn lives, so I'm sure the hoe provided protection from the snakes as well.

She loved to fish and one of her fishing buddies had a small pond with lots of perch. It was only a couple of miles so my grandmother would gather up her things and walk there. The fishing buddy was also related to me (2 ways) but on my Dad's side of the family.

They had a smokehouse but by the time I remember it, it was no longer in use.

My grandparents were friendly and cordial, but not necessarily loving. I would sometimes stay with them, but I was just there. They had raised 9 children and partially raised a grandchild, so I think they were just finished with it.

My grandmother loved to go ANYWHERE and when she went anywhere she wore a hat. At home in the yard it was a bonnet, but if she went to town it was a hat with a hat pin to hold it on. She was thin and wore her hair in a bun and told my sister she was part Cherokee. She looked the part and so do a couple of her children, but I'm not sure about it. She slept alone in a twin size bed with a big feather mattress. If you went to her house you had to get out of the car really quick or she would have gotten her hat and hatpin, shed her apron, and would be at your car ready to go somewhere.

They had a car for awhile, but my grandmother didn't drive and I would have been afraid to ride with my grandfather.

Their mail was carried by a rural mail carrier and he drove a small jeep. He made his rounds starting in the morning but it required him to come by my grandmother's house twice. When he came back in the afternoon, if she needed anything from town, she would ride back into town with him. I think he charged a quarter. She would spend the night with one of her sisters, and be at the PO when he left the next morning to go back by her house. Sometimes I would ride with him to get to my grandmothers house. He drove 20 miles and hour and I'm not sure he ever took it out of first gear.

My grandmother had sisters that were just the opposite and were loving and fun people. One had 4 children but never had a grandchild. I took advantage of that and she taught me to play all kinds of board games. The other had one son, that also had one son and she raised the grandson. He was just a few years older than me. I loved, loved, loved both of my great aunts. That aunt didn't drive either but as soon as her grandson had a license she bought them a brand new Chevy and she got to go wherever she wanted. She was a city lady and when she was younger had owned hotels. Even then she rented out two bedrooms to a couple of guys who worked in the oil industry.

I really don't know a lot about how my grandparents survived, but I know they ate a lot from the garden, and always had bacon, and chicken prepared many ways was frequently on the table. My grandmother killed them herself by wringing their necks and they would flop all around. She had a big old black pot that was outside and easy to build a fire under. It was near the end of the arbor where she like to work.

In the years that I was around, my grandmother was a lot more industrious than my grandfather. He had a hammock that was attached to two trees and he spent a lot of time there. It was made out of barrels staves so it was not flexible. My cousins and I dumped each other out of it many times.

At my grandmother's house, we ate and slept in the house but everything that could be done outside in the summer was. We ate a lot of watermelon and made lots of homemade ice cream.

We had lots of big family meals there but all of the family members that came brought a dish. My grandmother made cornbread everyday for lunch in a little black iron skillet. They ate what they wanted for lunch, then it sat on the side of the stove with a little plastic cover that looked like a shower cap. Many times my grandfather would just eat cornbread broken into a glass of milk for his evening meal.

My fathers family came from Tennessee to Texas. They lived in east Texas, then Dallas, then Indian Territory. They settled just south of where my other grandparents lived. I know a lot about them and their ancestors, but I never knew them since they had died before I was born. They lived in the same general area of Indian Territory from the mid 1890's until they died and most of their children are buried right there also. I know they raised all farm animals including pigs, and grew watermelon. I think earlier they had grown peanuts. They were all hunters and ate squirrel and game birds. My Dad's maternal grandparents came to Texas when east Texas was still a Mexican Municipality and received original Texas land grants. My Dad's parents moved on into Indian Territory and his grandparents tried to follow but he died before they got to IT. My GGgrandmother and one of her daughters came on anyway and lived near my grandparents.

Well, there is some gardening mixed in there. LOL They had no air conditioning, and I can remember when they only had an outdoor toilet. I think they survived because they had to, and they didn't know any other way to live.

I'll have to get my daughter to tell me some of the stories of the Byrd family. I know that Mother Byrd raised a whole potload of kids, both her own and her sister's, after her sister passed at a young age. The one place they had that I know about is down by Anadarko. As far as I know, the little house is still there and is still owned by a family member. As well as the standard garden, they also grew cotton. Lots of it. John still talks about being a kid and out working the fields, totin' that cotton sack behind him.
When my daughter and John decided to move back here from CA, they looked all over the state before finally finding a place in Little that they liked. Come to find out, John's daddy had put in the original road (9A) there, and his grandmother was buried in the cemetery right down the road. They found it out after they bought the place.
One of the stories John tells is of his daddy's favorite trick of sneaking up behind his mama when she was working in the kitchen. He'd grab her skirt and flip it up over her head and, real quick, tie it up there. John said it used to make her so mad!!
I'll have to see what else I can find out.

Here's a photo I wanted to post, simply because it's amazing. It's of a flume built by a group of ranchers outside of San Diego, way back when, after they lost a whole bunch of cattle to a drought. They had to move as many animals as they could manage, out on to the desert in order to save them. Now that's bad! I'm not certain, but I think they were the beginning of the whole water conservation district in southern California, maybe back around 1880. The flume is enormous, as you can see. It runs forever.

My mother owns a piece of property in the mountains up by Mt Shasta and it has a little live creek running through it. It was also created from a flume, but in that case it was built entirely by one man, working alone, with only his mule; crossing a steep ravine and bringing the water a mile down to his property from the main creek above. I think that was also in the 1880s.

{{gwi:1119815}}

Pat

I can assure you I'm not spoiled by the lushness. LOL. And if I could find my camera and had a little extra time I could take some pictures that would mirror the ones you showed. Yes the last 4 years aren't normal. At least I hope they aren't the new normal. Jay

Jay, That's funny because when I looked at those pictures I started to post a message and ask you if that was taken from your yard. LOL

I most sincerely hope it's not what we can expect for the future, and that it's a relatively temporary situation. What I meant by "lushness" was not what OK is experiencing now, nor any of the other drought areas, but what it's like in a normal year.

All I intended to point out is that these conditions are the norm in a lot of areas of the country, and that it's not likely to ever change for them. In fact, if areas like Los Angeles spread and grow any more than they already have, and the water from the Colorado continues to be funneled off to feed the multitude of swimming pools in southern California, it will do nothing but get worse. Thank heavens I don't live there!

Pat

Soonergrandmom,

I loved your story and the way you told it direct and to the point. It reminded me of my own family. Thank you for sharing it.

Pat,
We lived in the Bay area (Sunnyvale) for a little over three years just after we were married. The yards were usually green from people watering, but I remember the foothills being brown most of the time. Then it would start raining in December. One year it rained hard enough to collapse roofs. But the one thing I missed was thunder. We had one thunderstorm while we lived there. The power poles were arcing like mad. The year we moved, there was a severe drought and they quit serving water in the restaurants. San Luis reservoir was down so much, it didn't even look like the same place. I don't remember if they could generate electricity or not, during that time. We moved back to southern Ok. It took me several years to get back used to wind blowing faster than a breeze.

Soonergrandmon,
My grandmother was born in Erath county in 1882 and lived in that area until she get married and moved to Coryell county in 1900.

Loretta

Jay, I also thought of you when I saw the third pic. That looks exactly like western Kansas to me. But, of course, we all know you live in a little oasis of lushness. Heck, you practically have your own tropical rainforest there!

Carol, I cannot even begin to describe how much I enjoyed reading that. History, most especially personal history, is like candy to me. I simply cannot get enough! One set of my grandparents are nearing the end (and the other set are gone) and I'd love, love, love for them to talk about that sort of thing with me. However, they don't believe that I actually find it interesting and don't want to bore me. It drives me crazy! Actually, my grandpa is the only one left to be able to discuss things with any sense. *sigh* Maybe I'll get him to believe me before it's too late. It sure would be easier if we lived closer. I don't do phones and he doesn't do letters/email. LOL

Diane

I grew up in NE Oklahoma. You know, "Green Country"? Nothing "green" about it right now, so yeah, I agree I've been spoiled. But it is what it is, & maybe next year we'll be back to grass. For this year, I just tell myself that the drought is making me remember to wear shoes (that pokey grass hurts when you walk on it) & it's a joy not fighting mosquitoes this year. If I can stand the heat, I can actually go out on my patio in the evenings without being sucked dry by those evil little vampires.

Diane, It's no joke that a lot of the verbal history is lost forever, simply because our 'elders' don't think the younger generation is interested. (I say it that way because now I'm one of those elders.) I lost my dad last year, but a few years ago we got out a little tape recorder and got his started on telling stories of his childhood, his parents and grandparents. Some of the things he remembered! I was 60 years old at the time and had never heard any of it. Little things like the fact that his father was in the posse that rode out after Pancho Villa, and that he belonged to a skeet club that often included one of the Earp brothers.

Dad was a little embarrassed about it to begin with, but we just set the little recorder on a side table by his chair and he soon forgot it was there. Now we can listen to him all over again, and I'm so very glad we have that.

His grandfather was a businessman who had a company that made clay pipe, and he needed to be able to travel around. He had a big old open touring car, but he didn't know how to drive, so my father did the driving for him. Dad was 13.

During the depression, my mother tells of how they put layers of newspaper in their shoes to walk to school, because the soles were gone, but her mother had a little jar that sat in the kitchen and if she had a stray penny, it went in the jar to help the poor.

My daughter's in-laws all know the story of how mama nursed two babies at the same time. One of her own and one of her sister's, when her sister passed away and left an infant behind. They had no cow, and it's just what you did. The two babies grew up together as sisters, in a family of 14 kids. I do so wish we'd have been able to get Mother Byrd to sit down and tell stories of Oklahoma before we lost her. What a treasure it would have been.

Pat

Loretta, Maybe they were neighbors because my grandmother was born in 1879, but at that time they lived in Menard County, and the census shows them living next door to Ft McKavett. For at least part of the time they lived there, her father was a Texas Ranger. At that time, Texans had encroached upon the land that the Indians felt was their's and there was a lot of unrest. Texas Rangers were mostly Indian Fighters at that time.

Fort McKavett was one of the early camps established and since it was on the San Saba River, it was known earlier as San Saba Camp.

From the book "The Free State of Menard", page 62.
"The principal purpose for establishing Camp San Saba and re-establishing a garrison there as Fort McKavett was to protect the settlers from hostile Indians. The principal Indians in the region in 1853 were three bands of Comanches living within a radius of sixty to hundred miles. In the summer of that year the post was under the command of Major Edmond B. Alexander, Eighth Infantry, who had with him Five companies, there being seven officers and 185 men."

It is told that during the Civil War with so many men away from home that the line of established settlements slid back to the east again because of the Indian unrest issues. So after the war, the settlers began to move to the west again. My great grandmother (Drucilla Adeline Smith) was the daughter of Tull Smith. Tullius was a parter in an early store in the town of Menard and Texas history books show him as being killed by Indians as he traveled to make a horse trade, in 1871.

Some additional writings dispute this and say that he was killed by men that tried to make it look as if Indians had killed him. Another man had been scheduled to go with Tull that morning but "couldn't find his horse". I don't know if that meant one he planned to trade or planned to ride, but he didn't go, and Tull went alone. Tull was found dead on the road when the stage came thru that day. He is buried at Menard and his grave is marked.

The story of it being made to look like Indians may have just been a story, however, I learned in my research that the man who 'couldn't find his horse', later married Tull Smith's widow. LOL Knowing small town gossip, it could be a made-up story based on later events, or it could have been true. By all reports, the new much younger husband, was mean to his step-children and they left home as early as possible. The story told in the family is that Tull was killed by Indians.

In 1750 the Spaniards had established a mission on the San Saba and constructed a dam on the river. Before that this was Apache county. The Spaniards needed rock for the buildings they planned to construct but the limestone was in the wrong place. They built barges and carried the rock across, after they built a dam and had dug a canel to make a waterway to the limestone.

The second reason for the dam was to provide an irrigation canel so the land could be farmed. They also dug lateral ditches from the irrigation canel, with the help of the converted Indians.

All of this was for long term habitation, and apparently worked well since later on the local farmers were able to grow crops and sell to the Army to keep the soldiers fed. One of the books I have tells of the soldiers coming to a farm to buy a wagon load of sweet potatoes, but since they hadn't yet been dug, the soldiers dug them and filled the wagon. It also mentions that they grew corn, potatoes, melons, and vegetables.

The problem was that the soldiers being sent there were not Indian fighters and didn't have much luck with the task. At one time, they were all black soldiers, so you can imagine what a reception they got in the community where many of these settlers had come from the deep south.

One of the black soldiers wrote a love letter to a 16 year old white girl and her Dad tracked him down and killed him. Of course, the soldiers were then after the Dad, but he managed to hide out for three years because he was assisted by the local people. Since the settlers couldn't halp him directly they left supplies so he could help himself and the butcher knife by the bacon. LOL

The soldiers being sent to the fort couldn't provide the protection that was required to the farms, so it seems that Texas took it into their own hands and hired Indian fighters which became the early Texas Rangers.

The same book quoted above tells a story of my 2nd great grandfather and how he had a cripled hand. It seems they were in a camp one night, and a wolf came in while he slept and grabbed his hand. He said that he knew he could shoot the wolf with the other hand but the shot would likely bring the Indians down on them, so he just fought off the wolf with his hands.

History speaks well of my Smith family, but not so well, of my Blassigame grandfather that was the father of the Texas Ranger mentioned above. He was a bit of a gambler and his history is a little hard to follow. His name shows up occasion in early life in SC then on a ship in California, in the northern states where he dealt in livestock, and in a story where he was found hiding in Mexico, etc. When approached, and called by name, he tried to deny who he was, but later became curious and asked about his family in Texas. LOL

I don't know when my grandmother's family left Menard and moved to Erath, but I know they were there when my grandmother married my grandfather although the marriage was in Comanche County. Different family members lived in Stephenville, Dublin and DeLeon.

I think the Blassigames finally moved to Oklahoma and settled at Reck in southern Carter County which is the area I described in the earlier post. No one ever told me this but I think their property was split up between the children when they died, because I know two of my aunts also owned property on the road where my grandmothers house was, and my uncle had bought his place from one of them. I think my sister bought and still owns the one that had belonged to my other aunt although it is just a piece of land with nothing on it.

My mother lived to be 99 years old and died last August. She remembered a happy life, but lots and lots of moving around. She said that her mother's dream would have been to live on a big ranch somewhere and stay in one place.

My aunt, who is younger, remembers a time with very little food and many hardships. She moved to Dallas very young and lived with her older sister so she could work. She said she was hungry.

Since several of my grandmother's children had several marriages and a life they didn't care to share, it was like pulling teeth to get information about the family. My grandmother's sister, and Texas history have provided a lot of my information.

The other side of my family is even more colorful.

More than anyone ever wanted to know, right? LOL

Great stories, and definitely not what I'd consider more than anyone wanted to know.

In my spare time last year I was helping the Comanche tribe transcribe some old interviews from back in the 1950s with people who were very old then. The tribe is attempting to save and publish the stories for the future, and I had spare time on my hands, so . . .
In one of them, an old lady talks about growing up near Ft Sill. She said that the whites came in and set up a tent camp there. Children being children, and the camp staying there instead of moving on, after a while they decided to go investigate. She said that, as Indians, they kept expecting the newcomers to move on, but they didn't do that. Pretty soon they were putting up solid buildings and expanding. And she added "you know, they never did leave. They're still there."

And for those of you who'd enjoy simply a good laugh, there's always the story of daddy and the armadillo. It seems that one night a 'dilla got into the garden and was making a mess. Daddy grabbed the closest thing handy, which happened to be a rag mop and off he went, charging out into the moonlight to chase that critter out. It had different ideas, and it was fast. It may not require too great a stretch of the imagination to picture him out there, clad in only his BVDs, chasing that thing around with a string mop!

Pat

Soonergrandmom,

Our families may well have been neighbors. I know my grandmother's family had a farm somewhere around Dublin, but I don't know which direction. I envy you your family stories. About the only thing I know is that her father was blind and that her brother who was a policeman was killed in the line of duty in 1909. And my grandfather's family moved from Mississippi in 1870 to the Waco area.

I think there is a program in Oklahoma where people can make a video of their memories. That would mean a lot to their families over the years. I know stories get lost. My grandfather told me a little about when he was growing up, but I was a kid and while I liked hearing the stories, they have faded over time. I don't remember many of the details. He was a farmer who never gave up growing things even when he was very old. I was more interested in following him around in the garden. If I could do it all over, I would write a lot of it down when I remembered it better. Hindsight doesn't do much good. I know that classes about writing about your life used to be popular. Maybe everyone should do a little writing.

Loretta

Last year I did a lot of Indian Territory marriage records because I remembered how hard it was to find things in IT when I started research. The LDS Church uses them to create indexes to help people with their research. Anyone can assist with the program by just downloading it to you home computer and typing in the information. Most batches take an hour or two. When I first started doing it I would get hard copies or microfilm and there would be hundreds in a batch.

I had stopped doing them for about a year but a couple of nights ago I logged on and did a couple. Texas tax records which had nothing but names to extract, then a group of Alabama marriage records. I downloaded a third one but haven't done it yet. I think you get six days before it goes back to the pool. I've done over 16,000 records in the last couple of years, so I don't do it all of the time.

Since it is open to everyone to do now, and not just Church members, it is growing in leaps and bounds because a lot of people are eager to improve research records. I like to do it when I have time.

Talking about writing things down, I think my family is very, very lucky that way. Several of our ancestors kept journals of their travels, going clear back to what life was like in Scotland, making the voyage to America, going up the Mississippi, crossing the plains, and so on. We have carefully handed them down from one generation to the next. Maybe at the time they did not think they'd ever be important. To us, they are a treasure trove. Priceless.

Pat

Pat,
WOW! That would be great. You do have a treasure.
Loretta

I am like a hog in mud in this thread! Ahh...

Carol, I've used the LDS for genealogy searches but didn't know anyone could help out like that. That's really cool!! I'm going to make it a point to do that over the winter.

You know, I bought several (not cheap!) questionnaire books for all of the parents & grandparents, mailed them out, and asked them to write what they felt like answering so I could pass them down to my kids and their kids, etc. Everything from "what games did you play as a kid?" and "what did you eat for dinner growing up?" to plain ol' genealogy-type of questions. There would have been at least a few questions that each person could have easily, easily answered in two minutes. Not a single one sent me a single page from those books. I was so disappointed. They were real, hardback books that could have become heirlooms. Maybe I'll try it again one of these years and hit up all of the aunts & uncles that are left since there's only the one grandfather left who could answer.

Diane

Diane, go to the attached link and choose "Indexing" at the top of the page.

You can take a "Test Drive" to see what it is like.
When you sign up you will get a list of projects that are rated as beginner, intermediate, advanced, etc. They will also tell you which projects have priority, but you don't have to take one of those. You just check the block at the top to show you all they have waiting and ready to index. Then you can look at a sample to make sure you can read it. When you decide that you want one, just download it. When you finish a batch it will take you through anything that looks questionable to make you take a second look at it. You can change it or ignore it.

Someone else will get the same set of records to work. If they have differences, those will be worked by a trained third person whose decision is final.

When I was doing Indian Territory and early Oklahoma Marriage Records they were never on the priority list, but they were priority to me. LOL

One caution: This is world wide, so make sure you are looking at a record written in English.

Here is a link that might be useful: Indexing

Diane, what we did with my dad and the tape recorder was not really easy to get started because he didn't understand what we wanted to know. But once we did get him started about old San Bernardino, he'd say something like 'the old park at Urbita Springs' and we'd just answer 'no, what was that?' and he'd be off and running.
We got some amazing stories, like when the parks dept put up some immense concrete picnic tables with benches attached, at a little campground at Devore. Then the rains came, and they picked up those benches and hurtled them down, all the way across San Bernardino to the Santa Ana River, about 15 miles away! Anyone ever doubt the force of water? Yikes.

It's a shame that you don't have anyone nearby who could try doing the same thing with your relatives. I know that if I'd tried getting any of mine to write stuff down in a book, it wouldn't have happened. All of our stories are verbal.
Only the very old journals from the 1850s were written and preserved.

Here's a little story from one of them that you might appreciate.

This notation of the ocean crossing that shows the sort of observation they wrote down. It seems that there was a large and very whiny lady aboard with her son, and she was constantly complaining and asking "Sonny, get Mama this". Or "get Mama that". After a long confinement in pretty close quarters on a fairly small sailing ship, you can imagine the rest of the passengers were heartily sick of it. Then one day they ran into a bit of weather and some sizable swells. Apparently the ship lurched and Mama went flying backwards on the deck with her voluminous skirts up over her head. She wasn't hurt at all, but she screeched like a wet hen, and the other passengers couldn't help themselves. It was unforgivably rude of them, and particularly for that day and age, but they were tired of the trip and tired of her, and it was funny. They simply lost control and laughed. Somehow I doubt if she spoke to any of them for the rest of the voyage.

Pat

Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden

Here is a link that might be useful: The Story

My mom did genealogy and I can remember going with her to record peoples stories. As a kid it was boring, but now I can appreciate the value of those recordings.

Yeah. The stories I was working on to help the Comanche tribe were originally recorded back in 1954-56, and the elders that were being interviewed were very old at the time. Some were in their 90s, so the tales they had to tell were priceless. They remembered events from the late 1800s. They are not 'stories' so much as they are a marvelous verbal history that would otherwise be lost. How things can change in a mere 100 years.

Pat

Diane, You can't just say tell me your life story, you have to be sneaky about making them think.

Did you fight with your brothers and sisters or did you play well together? When did you learn to drive? Did you have a car? Did you buy it for yourself? Do you remember your aunts and uncles? Did you know your grandparents? Did your parents raise a large garden? Did you hunt? Did you have animals? How many schools did you go to?

For some reason they don't think they did anything interesting, nor do they think they remember anything until you ask specific questions.

When I was young I would ask questions, but my mother wouldn't tell me anything. When she was older she would say that she would tell me if she could remember. LOL

My mother had a sister that died young and when I started tracking her, she and her husband had been the parents of a son that no one in the family knew about. They knew about one son but not the one that died.

I questioned my mother and her younger siblings and none of them had ever heard the names of their paternal grandparents. Talk about a job, my family history gathering was a real task. Sometimes I would teach genealogy classes and my husband would always say, "Why are they asking you, it took you 30 years to find you ggrandparents." LOL

My mom did genealogy and I can remember going with her to record peoples stories. As a kid it was boring, but now I can appreciate the value of those recordings.