In the Beginning

     In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 KJV.

      That was my first thought when I saw the prompt suggestion.  This reminded me of my very first Bible. I received it when I was 8½ years old as a prize for  learning and memorizing Bible verses. It contained a family tree.   Mom helped me fill it in but there were names she didn’t know.  I still have that Bible and am still using it today.  Even though it is now falling apart.

It wasn’t until about 10 years later that I became interested in genealogy.  My aunt (Dad’s sister) was interested in learning about her family and got me interested as well.  We both joined a local genealogical society in 1981.  I still have that application!  Wow!  I’ve come a long way since then.  When I started, it was all done on paper.  Lots of letter writing and going to various libraries to do research.  Looking at microfilm – census records as well as church records.  Writing it all down in spiral notebooks or using pre-printed forms.  Planning road trips to go to cemeteries, churches, and courthouses and meeting unknown relatives.  Now, it’s using the internet, downloading copies of documents, or scanning photos and documents.  Using a software package to track the family – printing family group sheets or family trees.  Using that same software to load the media for each family.

I also had a cousin (actually, I still have her, but we just don’t get together like we used to) that was heavily involved in the family tree.  I think we were both just interested in collecting names.  I’m now going back over those branches and getting proof – not depending on published books (that I didn’t source).

That wasn’t the only mistake I made in the beginning.  There was also confusion over names.  I skipped a generation because I didn’t realize that a child was named after a sister (and they were only 3 years apart in age!).

In those early days I was also interested in learning my heritage roots.  I knew that I was German from my Dad’s side.  Mom always said she was a Heinz 57.  Guess that’s true – DNA shows a lot of different ethnicities – Irish, Scottish, English, etc.  What’s this about Sardinia?  Cousin Greg always thought he was Italian.  Guess it’s true.

      We have come a long way and have learned a lot.

2024 Week 25 - Storyteller

             Is there a storyteller in our family?  I think everybody was a storyteller – they all told stories at one point or another in our lives.  I’m trying to be the keeper of the stories and documenting them as much as I can.  Some of those stories appear here in my blog.

Dad and his sister often told stories about their growing up in the various logging camps – hide and seek; go carts; driving a speeder, a car, and a pick-up truck, and having meals at the logging camps.  A lot of these stories are being written in my documentation of the Kludt family.

Mom and her sisters often tell stories about growing up – stories about their grandfather George, about their Dad and about their brothers.  Stories about living near a Girls Correctional facility, earthquakes (and the damage done to a school and having to attend different schools), walking to and from town either to go to the picture show or collect their Dad.

I heard a lot of stories when I visited family in Kentucky – especially about my great-grandfather, George Keesee and his Model A.  Also, heard stories about the Reisner family when my aunt & I visited family in Iowa.

2024 Week 24 - Hard Times

             So many of our ancestors suffered from hard times from the Great Depression, poor financially, and who knows what else.

     

  My maternal grandparents were married in 1932.  There’s a story that was supposedly told by my grandfather of when he was looking for work.  He would go down to the employment line and stand in line hoping for a job.  Then he noticed that the men that seemed to get hired were wearing bib overalls (I believe he said they were striped).  So, he scraped up the funds to buy a pair and wore them the next time he went to stand in line.  Sure enough, he was able to get a job.  They raised a family of nine kids mainly living on a farm.  I know he moved around a lot.  In 1935, they were living in McCleary, Grays Harbor County, Washington (this is where their second child was born).  By 1936, they were in Chehalis, Lewis County, Washington.  In 1938, they were living in Glenoma, Lewis County, Washington.  And in 1940 they were living on the Cline Road in the Big Bottom area of Randle in Lewis County, Washington.  Sometime between then and 1944, they moved to Salzer Valley just outside of Centralia.  The remaining children (four of them) were born in the hospital in Chehalis.  They lived on a farm.  They were still living on the Centralia-Alpha Road during the 1950 Federal Census. Sometime between then and 1955, the family moved to Rochester area.  Sometime during the 1960’s, the family moved to Albany, Oregon.  After retirement, EB and Fern moved back to Washington State to live on the property belonging to their oldest living son in Woodland, Cowlitz County, Washington until their deaths in 1985 and 1990.