Thursday, December 12, 2013

Living History

My son in law is in the Army. We knew it was a possibility and likely that he would eventually receive overseas orders and so it is with mixed emotions that I am feeling after learning that my daughter and her family will be moving to Germany. Germany. Full time. Not a vacation. It is so far way with a new address of  residence.  I will miss the hugs from my grandchildren and the frequency of our stateside visits and saying goodbye will be hard. But I am also thrilled for them. What an opportunity to see Europe!

I have been to Canada, Mexico, Spain and Ireland but that is the limit of my worldly travels. So I am happy for them that they will be based in Europe and will have the opportunity to travel and have their passports stamped with all the countries large and small that they visit. I also know that we have the technology to keep in daily contact and I can see part of Europe through the eyes of my grandchildren.  I will visit them too, not as often and the goodbyes will still be hard but the next time I hug my grandchildren it will be in Germany, their new home and I am excited for them.

And I think of my family history, the past and the future and how our history continues to unfold. I think of how it will read twenty years from now. I think of the stories and entries that will be under my daughters family and her time in Europe. I think of my oldest daughter and her completion of law school as a mother to four in her mid thirties. I think of the legacies of all of my children that will be read by my descendants after I am gone.

 My oldest grandson is the budding family historian in my family. He loves to hear the stories about his ancestors who were in the civil war. He is always asking me about the lives of his ancestors. Learning about his family history brings history alive for him in a personal way and I am reminded that unless our story is recorded and preserved no one will know the stories of our lives, or of my children. It will be impersonal and we will only be a name on someone's genealogical tree.

Family history is not just a compilation of our past and of our ancestors who walked before us. It is the present. It is the future. It is the stories of us. It is the victories, the struggles and the celebrations of the living. It is of saying goodbye to my daughters family and saying hello to them in a new country.




Sunday, November 24, 2013



Census records are one of our first go to sources in researching our family history.

In researching our ancestors sometimes we unexpectedly find a relation that we did not know existed.
Maybe they were born in 1881 and married by 1900 and it is only after we begin collecting records on their family that their name surfaces. Maybe they were just omitted on a census and living on their own ten years later but sooner or later we all discover an ancestor we did not know existed.

Then there are the children who died to young. And sometimes the paper trail is only a burial. Dorothy Jean Steinauer was born yesterday on the 23 of November 1940 in Dawson, Nebraska, the youngest child of my grandparents Julius and Mary Farrell Steinauer and I am aware of her short life.

Dorothy was not yet born to be enumerated on the 1940 Federal Census and was eight months old when she unexpectedly died the following year on the 26 of July 1941. There are very few records that record her existence but Dorothy counted; she was loved and she is missed.

Dorothy has a birth record, a death record, a baptismal record and a burial record. She is buried in St. Mary Cemetery in Dawson where her parents would eventually be buried. I feel fortunate that these records exist. If we look we might find mention of her in the small town newspaper or see her name inscribed on the headstone next to her parents. But only if we look for more records on our families than a census record and only if we are more than name collectors in recording our family history.

                                        Dorothy Jean and my grandma Mary Steinauer, 1941
 Dorothy Jean has not been forgotten and this is why I record and preserve my family history.



Monday, October 21, 2013

Family


I have told my children it has been an honor and a privilege to be their Mom. With 12 beautiful grandchildren I feel the same way. Have you ever listened to children's conversations? They speak with sincerity and joy with wonderment and amazement, imagination and innocence and yes knowledge. They can embarrass us with the truth and make us laugh and sometimes cry. I am humbled. But have you ever tried answering their questions? How do you explain why a skunks smell does not go away? Or when your grandson does not believe you, as you are driving past the tree lines, that the moon really is higher than the trees? Have you ever heard "if that is what it means Grandma why didn't you just say that?" and thought you have a good point kid? Try explaining what the word "expect" means I dare you. I reflect on the cycle of life, of our young and the old, of our past and our tomorrows and it is a privilege to share their lives. 

Family has always been an important part of my life and genealogy and family history is an extension of my family. My husband teases me that I work with the dead. It's true I am always on the hunt for the next record or searching for just one more bit of recorded information that unlocks my past and I have spent countless hours in libraries buried in old records and transcripts that many might find tiresome all in the pursuit of my quest to give identity and personality to my ancestors.

I look at my grandchildren with all of their different and unique personalities and much like them I am always asking questions. I can't help asking who my ancestors were when they were young and pondering the questions of life and wondering if any of my grandchildren are images of them. I think of my ancestors and I remember my grandmothers and I know that a family consists of past and future generations. And I believe it is family, the peoples in our communities that lived before us that are the core of history.

We are interlocked just as we can not escape being connected to history. The past matters and our ancestors count and they should not be forgotten. It is up to us living in the present to record and preserve our history for our grandchildren and our future generations. It is for these reasons that I continue to answer "who were my ancestors?" and to record the legacy of generations before us.