Stories of family, creativity, and diverse distractions.

Tag: Family History Page 15 of 19

Posts about family history/genealogy.

A Valentine’s Anniversary

It’s a few days early, but we wanted to be sure to celebrate a special anniversary. This February 14, Carl and Georgie would have been married 80 years.

Keeping track of the Links – and the Hoels, Kelloggs and James – Pictures

As I talked about in this post, we became the family historians kind of by accident. And once word got out, we have been sent information and pictures from lots of different branches of our families. Keeping it all organized is a big challenge.

Keeping track of the Links – and the Hoels, Kelloggs and James – Information

We became the family historians kind of by accident. Walt always says that his brothers elected him when he wasn’t there.  At any rate, we were given a bunch of typed and hand-written sheets of family history and genealogy put together by Georgie (Walt’s mom) and Leonard Brune, Georgie’s second cousin. There were also photocopies of newspaper clippings and a few documents.

Eleven Tons of Thunder – Grandpa’s Minneapolis Tractor

When I think of a farm, I naturally think of a tractor. Every farm has a tractor. Most farmers have more than one. Even when I was a kid, farmers would have a “small” tractor for routine hauling and lifting jobs, and a bigger tractor for plowing, cultivating, and other heavy field work.

But in the early 20th century, most farms didn’t have any tractors at all. Farms were smaller, and the most of the work was done with horses or oxen. Tractors did exist, but they were specialist tools. They needed a different set of skills to maintain and operate, and they were quite costly. Since a typical farm only needed a tractor for a few days a year, it made more sense to pay someone to run their tractor than to buy your own.

Happy birthday, Glen McCain

Glen McCain was born January 14, 1907 in Ohio. His parents were Charles Hudson MaCain and Sarah Jane Hoel. Sarah was the sister of William Henry Hoel, Walt’s grandfather.

Traveling back along a family line – Kelloggs

Sometimes you can go back a ways. The Kellogg family line has been traced back for many generations.

Reading the society pages for genealogy research

A common source of information for family research is newspapers. There are any number of things that can be published in the paper that might provide information about a person. Obituaries, wedding and anniversary announcements are the most common items found. The social pages often had items on travels, jobs, colleges, and reunions. Even the local police reports may have interesting tidbits!

Merry Christmas!

Michelle and I would like to wish all of our readers a Happy Holidays and a Joyous New Year!

Happy birthday, Aunt Fran!

Frances Veronica Link was born December 18, 1926 to William John and Elizabeth Wellman Link in West Point, Iowa. She lived there until she graduated high school.

Fran, Georgie, and Louise Link, 1928

Mapping out your family history

When you are researching your family history, learning where they lived helps you find out more information about them. It’s even better when you can see who their neighbors were and where that store they owned sat.

Image shows a map of West point Iowa in 1916, with the city colored light green. All text is hand written, with the names of various landowners written in.
A plat map of West Point, Iowa from 1916. The map shows things like the post office, churches, schools, and the fair grounds south of town.

We can see on this map that the hotel is in section two, lot ten. The post office is across the square in section five, lot eighteen.

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