The Winged Victory of Samothrace, Louvre Museum. photo by Carole Raddato:  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 Are you a sculptor, or a basket weaver?  Creating a work of art out of a block of marble is very different from gathering materials and then weaving them together into a basket. Humans have done such things since before recorded history, but rarely are such works created by the same person. We are all different, and so we will all approach our family history-keeping in different ways. And maybe you are an artist, quilter, painter, creator of montages. Do you find bliss in marrying your love of family history with your art? Do you love listening to stories? Capture them! We are not all natural writers, and not everyone wants to dig into dusty archives or spend hours researching online. What are your strengths, your natural bent, hobbies, and pastimes? Also, the best interviewers are good listeners . Interviews published here in the SKCGS Blog have bee...

The Semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States, is being celebrated this year and everywhere you turn, you are being invited to participate. When I think of 1776 and the birth of this nation, I think of my Revolutionary era ancestors and how they were involved in the struggles and successes in their lives.  I suppose I am fortunate to have such ancestors to remind me of the "Spirit of '76" in establishing our country. I have to remind myself that 1776 was only the beginning, the birth. It is the 250 years of growth, exploration, immigration, poverty, riches, turmoil and triumph, that we celebrate today. These are the stories, the moments in our personal and collective histories that we can share with others.   Some of our stories are proud moments; some are humorous; some are of sad times or regrettable situations. But they all must be shared; look around you and find a place where you can contribute your story. National Celebration Americ...

James Wheeler: Free to use. Pitt Meadows, BC.  CanadaCrop Field Under Rainbow and Cloudy Skies at Daytime   Modern Blessing: Public Health   I am so thankful to live now, not 100 years ago. There are tiny figures next to the wife's name in the 1900 and 1910 US census, noting the number of children born and children living.  I feel relief when the numbers are the same; sadness when they are not.  Worse, we often never know the names of those who have died.  This past week I transcribed a long flowery obituary written by a grandchild of Kezia McGowan Husted, and this part touched me:  "Kizia McGowan was born in Wayne county, Ohio, February 18th 1830. Came to Illinois in 1845 and married Lyman Husted, 1847. To this union were born ten children of which four are living , namely: Mrs. Carrie Dudley, Mrs. Mary Cochran, William and James Husted. Six children preceded Grandma to heaven, when they were quite young... her angel children, whose names were: Ve...

Iron lung, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London: a patient inside a Drinker respirator, attended to by a nurse and a doctor. Photograph, ca 1930.  Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Valorie: While listening to the news about recent controversy concerning vaccines, I thought of my uncle, who died a few years back. When I was young, he was infected with polio. According to my cousin, doctors have said he was actually infected twice, with two different polio strains. He was deathly ill for many months and in an "iron lung" for a while. Although he mostly recovered and was able to work, travel and have a wonderful long life, he was never free of polio even at the end of his life.  I asked my husband if he had ever known someone with polio, and he said that a kid in his neighborhood was infected and paralyzed. He eventually was able to walk wearing braces. This was  frighteningly  common until the polio vaccines were finally available after thorough testing. It was co...

©Bizarro Piraro The comic above is funny, but history and our ancestor's stories are not always funny, pleasant, uplifting and inspiring. Life and thus history is full of tragedy and comedy, beauty and horror, and some parts are difficult to face. Survival is not guaranteed, because we are human. My family has endured crime and tragedy; my mother's father was convicted of child rape, and spent time in prison. My dad's only sibling, his little brother, drowned when only 13, and my Grampa Cowan, Donald's daddy, found his body. Terrible tragedy in the lives of both my parents, yet they went on to build a house and a life together. They raised my sister and I in that house, and my mother lived the rest of her life there. I think the security of living in a house they owned was a comfort to her, in contrast to the chaos in which she had been raised.  The reason I've been thinking about telling the whole truth of our families is that there is another a way of thinking abo...

By National Photo Company - Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6992872 Aunt Beulah's Memory "The forest fires were very bad that year.  A number of men’s lives were lost in this part of the country.  In one instance, Papa’s good judgment in using the “back-fire method” (only one other man stood by him in this decision) prevented serious losses in the Blue Creek area."   Beulah Stowe was born on the Stowe farm located on Tubb Hill above Coeur d'Alene Lake May 6, 1910.  In memories collected by her son, Larry Strobel, in 1968, she wrote the paragraph above.  Of course, she was less than four months old when the fires occurred that summer but the devastation and years of recovery certainly made an impact on her life and her family. Beulah Stowe Strobel,  Stowe Memories of Coeur d'Alene  1968 A collection of stories written by Beulah Stowe Strobel and her sister, ...