Genealogy, family lore, memoirs, and so forth.
There was a message on our voicemail from a gentleman who went to school in West Point. It was delightful to talk with him. I wasn’t aware that there was a West Point Iowa Facebook Group, and I have enjoyed reading bits of the West Point Bee and seeing pictures posted on the group.
I thought that a glimpse of the school picnic from 1934, taken at the Fairgrounds would be fun pictures to share this week.
My Grandma James was born on July 4, 1912. We always enjoyed celebrating her birthday, and as many of us as possible came to Watertown, South Dakota, every year.
Irene Belle Hodge was born to Clyde and Bessie May Trevettt Hodge in Emerson. Nebraska. She married Claude James and they had 7 children. She was a nurse in Watertown for many years.
Sometimes the challenge in genealogy is sorting out language differences, both in translation and in writing styles. In his post about the Bruegenhemke place, Walt mentioned high and low German. We will look at that and then look at writing patterns.
German language has several dialects, just like many other languages. High German is the official written language of Germany. It is based on the spoken languages of the highlands of southern Germany and is spoken in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Low German is based in old Saxon language and is not spoken much these days except in certain areas in northern Germany. It does not have an extensive amount of literature like high German does.
When you are researching family history, you often find that names have changed over the years. It can make the search for your family’s history challenging.
There are a number of reasons a name might change – immigration, transcription errors, translation, marriage, a desire to fit in the local community or a desire to hide from something in the past.
In our family history, we have a few names that have changed over time – most notably Hoel. Several of Walt’s ancestors spelled it Hole. It seems to have changed back and forth a couple of times, and it also depends on which document you are looking at for a few family members. Walt’s great-grandfather was listed as John Swisher Hole. His son, Walt’s grandfather, was William Henry Hoel.
When I was a kid Mom would always talk about the “Brigham Emkey” place. Or maybe it was “Brigham Empty”. Or “Bring ‘Em Empty”? She said it all as one word, like “BrighamEmpty”, and it was hard to tell. But the BrighamEmkey Place was where Mom lived as a little girl, and she told a lot of stories about it. But I could never figure out the name.
Delores was born on June 7, 1934 and died on January 25, 2005.
I remember sitting on the porch at my aunt and uncle’s farmhouse, listening to my Aunt Dee playing the guitar and telling stories. When I was very little, I thought she made up all the songs she sang for us. I remember being very surprised to learn that she didn’t write “You Are My Sunshine”
Today is Memorial Day, though the old folks called it Decoration Day. Memorial Day is a big deal now. It’s a three day weekend for many people, and it memorializes fallen soldiers. To hear Madison Avenue tell it, everyone goes to a parade that features a military flyover. After the parade everyone has a cookout with their family. I can’t say how many people really celebrate Memorial Day that way. But I can say for sure that when I was a kid Decoration Day wasn’t like that at all.
I was looking through some pictures the other day and I noticed how many of them showed people fishing. It was a popular way to pass the time for Carl and Georgie and other members of their family.
Carl took a lot of photographs. And he clearly had one favorite subject for his pictures. It’s easy to see why….
Orville Ray Hoel was born May 12, 1906. He was the son of William Henry and Martha Ann Fisher Hoel. Orville was the seventh of nine children. He was Carl’s older brother.
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