[or-roots] Genealogy and Family History

[Harguess, Dale]

Your words reminded me of one of my mystery ancestors.  I can't for the
life of me figure out why there is such a length of time between the
births of his first and second child.  I do not know  what was going on
at that time in history (other than Indian wars) and since he was a
farmer I can't really imagine why there would be a ten year span between
his first and second child.  He had a cousin about the same age and he
too had about 10 years between his first and second child.  The first
child was born in Ohio about 1835 and the second was born in Iowa about
1845 and then the third about 1850.  They came to Oregon about 1852.  Do
you have any ideas on this?

Thanks,

Dale

 

-----Original Message-----
From: or-roots-admin at sosinet.sos.state.or.us
[mailto:or-roots-admin at sosinet.sos.state.or.us] On Behalf Of
CKlooster at aol.com
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 6:43 PM
To: or-roots at sosinet.sos.state.or.us
Subject: [or-roots] Genealogy and Family History

 

I've done worked on my family lines since the early 1970's and it
complimented nicely an interest in history and an inate curiousity.  It
was frustrating, however, to have names and places and dates but no
stories handed down to flesh these ancestors out.  I was content with
that until some information about the support group called Adult
Children of Alcohol Parents and Dysfunctional Families  crossed my desk
one day.  I scanned through it because it pertains to my job...and
suddenly something struck me, so I read the material.  I realized then
that whether or not we are children of alcoholic parents and
dysfunctional families, who and what our ancestors were has a definite
impact on who we are as people...and I'm not just talking about brown
eyes or curly hair.  Here is a story that was told at a national mental
health meeting that I attended:

 

A new husband watched fondly as his young wife prepared dinner in the
kitchen of their apartment.  She placed a pot roast on the cutting board
and carefully sliced it in half.  She then placed the meat in a roasting
pan with one slice piled precisely on top of the other and put it in the
over.  Puzzled, the man asked why she'd cut the roast in two.  "That's
the way you cook pot roast" she replied, "My mom makes the best pot
roast and that's the way she cooks it.".  The next time they were at his
in-law's house the young man brought up the subject of pot roast, "I'm
curious about why you cut the roast in two." he said.  The mother-in-law
looked at him with a puzzled expression and replied, " I don't know why
it needs to cook that way, I guess because it cooks better.  My mother
always cooked hers that way.".  Once the subject had been raised, there
was much discussion and nobody had a definitive answer.  "I'll settle
this," the mother-in-law said, "I'll call my mother and ask her why."
Grandma answered the telephone and the question was put to her; there
was a long pause and Grandma said, "I don't know why you cut the roast
in half, but I had to because I only had a very small roasting pan.".

 

The point of this is that traits and beliefs and ideas are often passed
along to us unwittingly.  One technigue taught by ACOA is to do a family
inventory.  You begin with the earliest ancestor that you know and write
down eveyrthing that you know about them...dates and places; how many
children in their family; how old their parents were; how old they were
when they married and began to have children; family legends;
occupation...everything you can think of.  For the furthest back
ancestors that may only be a name and a date and a place.  You work
forward, taking each person as an individual and writing down eveything
you know or have heard.  Once you have completed this task (and it's a
lot more difficult for those of us who've been doing genealogy for
awhile) you start looking at what was going on in the world at the time
these people were alive and thinking of how it may have impacted their
lives.  I have an ancestor who was in the Civil War.  At 25 he married a
very young girl and promptly moved with her to Indiana/Illinois where
his parents lived.  Leaving her pregnant and with his parents, he went
off to war.  There she was, young, pregnant, and living with her in-laws
far from her own family.  When Johnny came marching home again he stayed
just long enough for her to become pregnant a second time before he went
off to the silver mines of California leaving her behind still with the
in-laws.  It wasn't until several years later that he went back to
Illinois and gathered up his family to move them to Oregon.  I know only
the barest facts about this branch of the family, but after doing this
exercise they became more than just names and dates.  When I look at the
lives of their children I begin to see more of pattern.  It's
interesting to see that some patterns are traceable through a number of
generations...sometimes right down to me!

 

If you do this sort of exercise and make a timeline of what was
happening in the world, you can add quite a bit to the portrait of an
ancestor who has only been a name and date.  A picture and a pattern
often begins to appear.   Letters and journals and memoirs are terrific
when you can find them, but far too few ancestors leave us that sort of
record. 

 

So yes, on this list we often digress, but those disgressions add to the
history...even if the history is comparatively recent.

 

And, as can be seen by the number of facts that quickly appear as the
result of most queries, we actually do some genealogical research from
time to time!

 

Carla 

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