Plants on the Oregon Trail, Part 1

 

In preparation for our EWGS May meeting, I thought I'd share something I submitted to our BULLETIN back in March 2009:

These are notes that I took in August 200-8, when I attended the Oregon California Trails Association (OCTA) Conference in Nampa, Idaho. Pat Packard was one of the featured speakers. She spoke on the plants of the Oregon Trail and how the folks perceived the plants and used them as they went along. I thought our EWGS readers might enjoy "hearing" her too. 

Plants fueled the trip for both men and animals. Plants dictated the route, the leaving times, the stopping times and points for the entire trip. They could not pack and carry with them enough food for their animals as they went along; horses and oxen had to eat along the way. 

Most of these families had already moved an average of five times. They thought of themselves as "movers." Because of that, they had experience with new plants in new places. Also because of that, they had developed a theory that if they didn't know what the plant was, and could not name it, they it was to be considered poisonous and not to be eaten. 

Most think they did glean and eat along the way. Not so, according to Pat Packard, for these reasons: 

(1) they were often in desert country where there was nothing to eat

(2) they travelled in summer when food-plants were less abundant

(3) they constantly encountered unknown plants and were fearful

Their basic diet was beans, bacon and biscuits. This is a diet high in carbs and protein. There was very little Vitamin C, and scurvy was the third highest cause of death on the Oregon Trail. English sailors had long ago discovered that limes helped and could be carried on long voyages. They got the idea that acid/sour substances were the cure for scurvy. The immigrants didn't have limes, but they did have vinegar. In her research, Ms. Packard found little mention of the pioneers searching to find vinegar or pickles to pack and take with them. This seems obvious to us now but not to them then. They really needed fresh fruit and greens. They had some dried fruit but unfortunately drying the fruit destroys the Vitamin C. They kept in mind the old advice about beware of poisonous plants and even as they saw various fruits and greens, they were fearful to use them. On the Mormon trains it was better because in many cases folks had been over the same trail before and their advice was passed along to new immigrants. Nearly 100% of the Mormon pioneers utilized the wild plants they found. 

TO BE CONTINUED

Ulster Settlers Database

 Likely you cannot read the faint print of this snip, so I  copied it for you. The important-est statement is this, to my mind: "historical data relating to the English and Scottish men and women who settled in Ulster in the period 1609-1641..."   Those are/were what we've come to understand as the Scots-Irish! Those hard-to-find-hard-to-trace rascals who came to the colonies and happily settled on the frontier away from anything of "officialdom." 

My hubby's Phillips line is Scots-Irish and I've had minimal success with it. Bet you're in that rowboat with me, eh? I'm going to have a great time clicking around on this website/database......... and, if you Google "Ulster Settlers" several parallel websites pop up, offering more insight, knowledge and information to you! Hooray!

The Ulster Settlers Database, an exciting biographical and historical resource, is now available to researchers. Making innovative use of historical data relating to the English and Scottish men and women who settled in Ulster in the period c.1609-1641, the database is a searchable account of a community in flux.

The initial phase of the project was funded by the Royal Irish Academy through the Hunter Digital Fellowship. Beginning in early 2022, the project was co-hosted by the Institute of Irish Studies at Queens University Belfast and Maynooth University’s Arts and Humanities Institute. 

Taking on the challenges involved in working with incomplete biographical data, this project models existing data into life events and then digitally links all these related events to reconstruct a searchable prosopography or biographical map of the entire settler cohort. 

The Ulster Settlers database is available to search here: https://ulster-settlers.clericus.ie/

By the by, never say "Scotch-Irish." David Rencher, CEO of the FamilySearch Library reminds us "that Scotch is a drink."

FamilySearch WIKI

 

Have you accessed the wonderful, fantastic, FREE resource that is the FamilySearch WIKI? When you click to www.familysearch.org/WIKI this is the page that opens up to you. From this menu, you can "order" among over 106,000 articles......... articles about places all over the world, records of all types, and what records can be found where. When my Puerto Rican friend, Leticia, wanted help with her family tree, the first thing I did was to go to the WIKI and print out all the pages of tips, helps and websites. 

Danielle Batson at the 2023 RootsTech, gave these tips in her talk:

• "The WIKI is your online genealogy guide linking you to all known records of the entire world!"  How can you top that??
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• WIKI is constantly adding newly found links/sites.
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• WIKI offer strategy papers.
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• Search by locality, she said. "That's where things happen!"
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• Search top-down.... ie, start with Denmark or Virginia and then work your way down through the menu.
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• Realize that some countries ("Bulgaria for instance") hasn't as many records.
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• Don't over look the sidebar with links to other related records.
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• You can also join a community group for your target area and ask locality-specific questions.
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• Wiki offers Guided Research..... Wiki offers guides to where you might look next.
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• You can book your free Virtual Genealogy consultation, a 20-minute time one-on-one with a FamilySearch specialist for that area or type of record. 
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• And this, the best words she said were these:

"The FamilySearch WII is your researchers' Golden Ticket!"

Tips For Southern Research

 Right off the bat, I'll bet you're surprised to see the number of states included under the umbrella of "southern," as in Southern Genealogy Research. Surprise, indeed!

I attended the 2023 RootsTech and listened to a speaker (whose name I didn't scribble down) speak about Southern Research and giving some tips for same:

• Learn as much history on/from your family as you can! 
• Reason out the facts......... was it indeed a southern state?
• Brush up on your U.S. history from 1763 to 1775 for starters.
• Then progress to the Civil War time period. 
• Know that Georgia was only 1/2 British and was 1/2 Native American.
• Yes, while many courthouses were burned and records lost, not everything was lost. The documentation of the county's wealth and income was all important (how to levy taxes if you didn't know who owned what land?) and were reconstructed.
• Search the land records and deeds of target states.
• Attempt a time line for each family in your target location.
• Plot the family's migration into and then through the Southern states. 
• Check newspapers for that time and place.
• Correlate info from all available records: land, census, probate, court, military
• BE AWARE OF COUNTY BOUNDARY CHANGES!
• Use period maps.
• Watch for name changes or just misspellings.
• Southern "speech" often use "brother/cousin" when there was no relationship
• Each southern state has historical societies and archives as do many of the counties in those states. Many of these societies had many much of their holdings available online. 

Example: My hubby's great-grandfather, Seaborn Phillips, born 1844 in Georgia and died in 1906 in Texas. Why Texas? He was a Confederate soldier (was at the Battle of Gettysburg, he said) and after the war, Georgia was devastated and had no resources to pay pensions to veterans, so he moved his family west to Texas where pensions were to be had (Texas was not heavily impacted by the war). 

Filles du Roi

 Was your ancestral mother a filles du roi? If so, be proud. These women are known as the founding mothers of Canada.

Here's the history:

To secure his colonial claims in North America, King Louis XIV of France had to strengthen his settlements in New France (Nova Scotia). French officials recruited girls and women to migrate to New France to increase the population. They became known as the filles du roi, or King's Daughters.

From 1663 to 1673, nearly 1000 women came to New France. In exchange, the women received money, clothes and household items. Almost all of these women married and had children, doubling the population. 

From the perspective of the French Crown, the program was a success. However, little has been recorded of how these women viewed their experiences. 

The women were to be of child-bearing age and especially so, in good health. The women picked for this "adventure" were chosen by their age, health and physical strength, not necessarily for their looks. They had to be "in good health and strong enough for field work and have strong skills when it comes to domestic tasks..."

There are many Canada-based societies dedicated to preserving the memory, experiences and descendancy of these so-called King's Daughter. Also, YouTube offers several video-stories. 

So be proud if your great-x-time-grandmother was a Kings' Daughter!

Are You A Francophone?

 

A francophone, simply put, is one who speaks French primarily as a first language. We might guess that there are many French speaking people in Canada and Louisiana but I never would have guess that there are so many francophones in the rest of the world, especially Africa. 

According to an article in American Ancestors, Fall 2010, by Felix Lafrance:

Between 1840 and 1930, more than 900,000 French-Canadians left Canada for the U.S. This massive exodus was the result of many complex factors. In 19th century French Canada faced significant economic and socio-cultural changes as it transformed from a rural society to an industrial economy. ...... as economic development exploded, the lives of the working people became worse.... pricing, lack of farmland, poor quality of arable land, debt.. left many French Canadians without a home or a job.

So they came to the United States. But where? By 1900 there was a sizable French-speaking population in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Smaller groups were in New Hampshire, and Maine. And they did well in their new home. 

What attracted them to the U.S.? If lack of jobs, debts and poverty were the primary reasons why French-Canadians left their native land, the pull exerted by America was a factor.  By the end of the Civil War, American industry found itself with a shortage of workers in all sectors..... housing, construction, dam and canal building, installing and maintaining roads, sewage and aqueduct systems, farming, timber and especially industrial manufacturing. These industries experienced unprecedented growth due to the influx of French-Canadians eager to work.  

American life itself was a powerful attraction. American cities promised a new way of life and escape from agricultural work. "City delights" attracted the young. 

Bottom line, the "fever of departure" caused almost one million French-Canadians to immigrate to the U.S. between 1840 and 1930. Perhaps your ancestor was among them??

Do you still speak some French?? 

Are You Your Own Brickwall?

 

In genealogy, the term “brick wall” is often used to refer to tough research problems, apparent dead-ends that after many hours of searching still yield no answers. 

We all think we know about brick walls because most of us have them..... or have had them in our family history research. Am I right? Ever considered that you might be your own brickwall??

A handout from FamilySearch identifies some common genealogical mistakes and offers strategies for overcoming them:

• GETTING STARTED
• Talk to family!! Do not skip this step.
• Realize that there is information beyond the Internet.
• Realize that while online family trees are great CLUES, unless they are well documented, they are not to be taken as  gospel.
• Get over the "if it's not free, I don't/can't/want it." (There is a cost associated with creating and maintaining websites, obtaining and organizing records, etc)
• THE RESEARCH PROCESS
• Plan your research; don't succumb to SOS (Shiny Object Syndrome)
• Don't start at the wrong end.... meaning start with today, document your ancestry from today on back .... and you'll likely find clues to that end-of-line ancestor.
• Focus on one family at a time... NOT an individual. Not one man or woman was totally alone but was surrounded by family, friends and neighbors. (In those olden times of the 1800s, where did an ailing old widow go? To live with her children or grandchildren! There was no Social Security.)
• Be aware of spelling variations: Phillips, Philips, Phillipss, Filips, Flips, etc. are all the same surname (most likely, spoken by one who could not spell). 
• WORKING WITH RECORDS
• Aim to access the "real" or bottom-line source, not a derivative source. Ask: where did she get that information as shown on her online tree????? SHE is not a source for you! 
• Do you collect names and bits and pieces of likely-looking information in hopes of fitting the puzzle pieces together? Doesn't work well, does it, and soon you have desk overflowing with papers! Take the time..... make the time... to analyze your findings. Take time to spread it out on a table and think how it might or does fit. 
• It is most worthwhile to write up your idea, your analyzing, your thoughts. Just because you've gathered a bunch of facts about an individual or a family, do you have the right family and/or all the information? A school notebook is great; you're not writing a novel but just jotting ideas. 😐

There are dozens of websites offering "Overcoming Brickwalls" and many YouTube videos of the same. Instead of giving up, or quitting when all the low-hanging fruit is picked, or succumbing to SOS, give yourself a shake and learn how to NOT be your own brick wall!

Trivia..... No April Fooling!

 

Today dinner time often means sharing a pizza....... at the table or in front of the TV or computer. But it was NOT like that in the olden days.

An old Miss Manners newspaper column gives the courses, and the order of these courses, for a 19th century dinner....... all served with different and appropriate dishes, silverware and wine:

• Raw oysters
• Soup, often a cream soup
• Hors d'oeuvres
• Fish
• Entree... not what we think today but vegetables like asparagus, artichoke, corn
• Sorbet
• Hot roast
• Cold roast
• Game
• Salad
• Pudding
• Ice Cream
• Fruit
• Cheese

"Never fear, "Miss Manners touted "these were times when thinness was considered not chic, but pitiful. But even then, guests were not supposed to et everything. It was like an entire (menu) from which to pick and choose."

Keep in mind, that at these L-O-N-G dinners, you're wearing heavy, formal attire (corsets, full skirts, sleeves) and there was no AC in summer and it was considered bad manners to absent yourself from the table. If invited, would you attend???

Cajun & Creole

 (The above was snipped from The Historic New Orleans Collection; used with thanks. The map below was snipped from the website of the Laura Plantation; again with thanks. The bottom information was snipped from the website Explore Houma, Louisiana's Bayou Country; with thanks.)

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CAJUN & CREOLE

The term Creole can have many meanings, but during the early days of Louisiana, it meant that a person was born in the colony and was the descendant of French or Spanish parents. The term is a derivative of the word “criollo,” which means native or local, and was intended as a class distinction. In present Louisiana, Creole generally means a person or people of mixed colonial French, African American and Native American ancestry. The term Black Creole refers to freed slaves from Haiti and their descendants.

Still another class of Creole originates with the placage system in which white and creole men took on mixed-race mistresses in a lifelong arrangement, even if the men were married or married later. In this arrangement, the women had property, their children were educated and entitled to part of the man’s estate upon his death. In New Orleans, these people made up the artisan class and became wealthy and very influential.

“Cajun” is derived from “Acadian” which are the people the modern day Cajuns descend from. These were the French immigrants who were expelled from Nova Scotia, and eventually landed in Louisiana after decades of hardship and exile. Hearty folks from many backgrounds married into the culture, including Germans, Italians, Free People of Color, Cubans, Native Americans and Anglo-Americans. French or patois, a rural dialect, was always spoken. Due to the isolation of the group in the southern locations of Louisiana, they have retained a strong culture to this day.

ANY QUESTIONS? Ask Google!

Museums...... Best Places For Learning

 

Bet you had no clue that there was a museum in Spokane having over 19,000 articles from the fire fighting industry?? I did not! But I do want to go!

There are plenty of museums in the Eastern Washington area. Below is a copied bit from the Washington State Genealogical Society (www.wasgs.org) where you'll find a pages-long list of museums spread all around our Evergreen State! (The list was mostly compiled by EWGS member, Duane Beck.)

As that list on the state society webpage covers the entire state, even in your travels you might/could/should/ought to visit a museum and get some extra "larnin into your noggin."  (Speaker George Schweitzer used to say that.) 

There were these many listed for the Spokane area.....the entire list was PAGES long...... so there are plenty of museums in your area to learn from and visit!

P.S. The list was compiled some time ago. If you wish to visit a particular museum, I'd strongly advise you to check out their website and/or their Facebook page.

In The Olden Days....

 

This lovely old photo is my hubby's grandmother, Mary Ethel Leverich Oswald (1886-1967). This was her high school graduation photo....... today's high school graduation photos look nothing like this, do they?? Yes, the Olden Times were different...... for instance:

If We Didn't Have It We Used:

• Q tip  --  cotton wound around a match
• Scouring powder  --  wood stove ashes
• Glue  --  raw egg white
• Hot water bottle  --  heated rock or bag of heated rock salt
• Toothpaste  --  salt mixed with baking soda
• Paste  --  flour mixed with water
• Bandage  --  torn-in-strips old bedsheets
• Adhesive tape  --  needle and thread
• Deodorant  --  baking soda
• Ice  --  hailstones or blocks cut in winter from a pond or river
• Waxed paper  --  found inside cereal boxes
• Sandwich bags  --  waxed paper
• Foil  --  gum wrappers
• Ink  --  laundry bluing
• Group transportation  -- truck with seats in back
• Tire repair kit  --  can of rubber patch and glue
• Air for tires  --  hand operated tire pump
• Toilet tissue  --  Sears or Wards catalog
• Salad dressing  --  cream, sugar and vinegar mixed well
• Sanitary napkin  --  old sheets
• Pencil sharpener  --  knife
• Fingernail clipper  --  kitchen scissors
• Salve/Ointment for wounds  --  lard mixed with kerosene and turpentine
• Hand lotion  --  cream or lard
• Laundry soap  --  you made it from grease and lye
• Lunch pail  --  lard bucket with a handle
• New mop --  old clothing on a mop stick
• Cough syrup  --  raw onion and sugar syrup
• Fresh milk  --  milked a cow twice daily

So do you really think life was better in the good old days? How would you have fared?

(Thanks to Nostalgia Magazine, Nov-Dec 2010 issue for this wonderful article by Leone A. Browning.)

Stronger Together!

Remember getting rope-burned-hands playing tug-o-war with a rope? And too often neither side "won," and sometimes one side got pulled into the mud! Remember?

If there is a job to be done, isn't it better to work together? Nobody's hands get rope-burned that way! And the job gets done!!

I LIVE IN SPOKANE AND AM AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF EWGS....... AS YOU READ THIS POST, SUBSTITUTE YOUR SOCIETY'S NAME!!!!

I'm aiming today to sorta follow-up on our EWGS January meeting..... dedicated to service...... service to EWGS. Are some of you still on the fence about stepping up to do something for EWGS?

WHY? WHY come/mix/join/support EWGS? Here's why:

• EWGS people are "your kind" of people and are your friends.
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• EWGS people will welcome...and listen to.... your discovery-stories!
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• EWGS people have years of combined research knowledge and are always willing to help you. (But you gotta ask.)
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• EWGS meetings are FUN..... prizes, contests, raffles and cookies!
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• EWGS meetings are INFORMATIVE..... the EWGS board strives most diligently to offer programs of worth and interest to us. 
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• EWGS offers multiple learning opportunities.... TAG, Refocus, RootsMagic
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• EWGS offers you a way to give back to the genealogy community through service...... through volunteering to help however you can. The definition of service is, simply put, HELPING.
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• In EWGS, sometimes you're the helper and other times you're the helpee. (Don't look in the dictionary for that word; I made it up. 😌)

Please click to www.EWGSI.org, especially if you've not in a while, and check out all that's offered to YOU. 

And know that EWGS needs you help, big or small.  😁

 

Good Idea? Bad Idea? Online Trees! Part 2

 

Many of us have been blessed to sit beneath the 150-year-old banyan tree in downtown Lahaina, Maui. (Which is said to be showing signs of life after the devastating August fire. Yahoo.) Looking at the city-park-wide spread of this tree, one can imagine an equally large series of roots reaching back into time and bringing the beloved tree back to life.

The Maui Banyan is the metaphor I choose to share with you today. All that we see, from the ground up, is our growing family (pretend you're the tiny white person/spot). But what we cannot see is the equal number of roots/ancestors that brought us to this point. 

It's those people/ancestors whom we genealogists seek. The question on the table to day is how to organize and keep that information in a safe and a usable way?

Let's take a peek at the different safe-storage-for-long-term methods:

• Individually Managed Family Trees.. meaning YOU are in charge, period:
• American Ancestors TREES
• Ancestry -- private member trees
• MyHeritage -- private member trees
• Findmypast --- private member trees
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• Keeping your tree online on these websites means nobody/no how can add/substract/multiply/divide or mess with your information.... but you can give permission for folks to see your tree. 
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• Collaborative Family Trees.... meaning folks do work together to add/edit/mange profiles. BUT know that others can and might make changes to "your" profile. Not supposed to without giving documentation. 😉
• FamilySearch Family Trees..... nearing 2-billion online trees
• WikiTree..... 36 million trees
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• Programs on your own computer...... meaning you are solely in charge; both have a free and paid version.
• LegacyFamilyTree ---- can sync with FamilySearch
• RootsMagic ----- can sync with Ancestry

Certainly there are other online programs and other at-home computer programs. I'm just giving the bare minimum here to kick-start your decision making process as to what are YOU going to do with all your family history information????? Remember, your "Maui banyan" might burn to the ground next time. 

Good Idea? Bad Idea? Online Trees? Part 1

Is there such a thing as One World Tree? One tree that documents every ancestor back to....... well, as far as records exist. Those advocating a One World Tree believe (as do I) that we're all children of God and therefore we are related. Somehow. Somewhere in time. But the information on those 20th generation ancestors is beyond our ken and our reach, isn't it? 

Let's talk practicality. Ask yourself these questions: 

• How far back can I, or do I want, to find (and document) my ancestors??
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• Aren't we mostly happy if we can find records back into the 1500s? That's 20 generations, a million names! Can we keep track of a million ancestors? Can we know a million ancestors? I think not. I cannot!
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• Do we really care what path other genealogists might choose to pursue?
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• What do know about the last 5 generations of ancestors? (That's nearly 200 years!) Isn't that the point of doing family history.... to get to know at least something of an ancestor's life and times? 

Once those questions have been answered in your mind, consider these:

• Do I want to share my tree/information or keep it (safely) to myself?
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• Back 200 years (or more) are those folks just your ancestors? Hardly. 
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• Besides, how many answers have I gained for my family tree/ancestors from others?? Isn't sharing really the best option?
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• Lisa Louise Cooke (FamilyTreeMagazine, May/June 2022) advocated YES for sharing but to "keep the heart of our genealogy at home..... a master family tree of your family tree, built on your own computer, is the key to securing your family history now and for generations to come." 
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• While I greatly respect Lisa Louise, I puzzle her answer. Just keep my tree on my computer? What if my computer crashes/floods/burns in a fire...... and I've not kept backups regularly? And/or shared them with family? All will be lost. 
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• Everything I've read, and from all the genealogy/tech gurus, say this: DO have an online tree, do keep it backed up in multiple places, and DO keep your tree in a home computer program on your own computer. 
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• Puzzle and ponder your answer to these questions and "problems"............ Part 2 next time. 

Buffalo Soldiers In The Northwest

 American Plains Indians who fought against these soldiers referred to the black cavalry troops as "Buffalo Soldiers" because of their dark, curly hair, which resembled a buffalo's coat and because of their fierce nature of fighting. The nickname soon became synonymous with all African-American regiments formed in 1866. (Wikipedia)

Idaho has strong connections to Buffalo Soldiers. Units from Ft. Missoula and later Ft. Wright participated in restoring order during the 1890s mining wars, as well as help rescue local townsfolk from the Great Fire of 1910. 

Wallace, Idaho, in June 2019, hosted a group of Buffalo Soldiers re-enactors. They came to shine a light on a little-known chapter in the annals of U.S. Military History. On 14 June 1897, a force of 20 African American soldiers along with two white officers, a doctor and a newspaper reporter set off on an epic 1900 mile bicycle ride from Missoula, Montana, to St. Louis, Missouri. 

Nicknamed the Iron Riders for both their heavy one-speed bikes and their iron hard constitutions. The intrepid group made the trip in six weeks, having battled poor roads, every kind of weather, meager rations and prejudice. But they did receive a hero's welcome when they arrived in St. Louis. 

Nothing I read explained WHY did they make that ride but it was an extraordinary achievement. 

To learn more about the Buffalo Soliders, click on YouTube and search for The Bicycle Corps, America's Black Army on Wheels. There is also a Buffalo Soldier National Museum in Houston, Texas. 

To me, every tidbit of American history, done by ANY of her people, I find fascinating. Hope you do too. 

Railroads..... Museum & Facts

 

Have you been to the Inland Northwest Rail Museum just a hoot and holler west of Reardan?? If you're into trains, train history, engines, different rail lines, anything "railroad," this is the place to go. While not open every day year round, they have plenty of regular open days and a host of special events. Do check it out. 

Coming up on Saturday, May 11th, there are Big Happenings planned for the entire weekend and I will be offering a class on "Did Your Ancestor Work For The Railroad." Come, enjoy the displays, the train rides and, on that day, the class.

Railroad Facts you perhaps did not know (according to a 1990 factsheet I have):

• Freight traffic on major U.S. railroads is measured in "ton-miles." This is a term denoting the movement of one tone of freight a distance of one mile. Our U.S. railroads achieve millions of ton-miles every year
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• There are no legal limits on how long a train can be but there are practical limits, such as power of the engine.
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• During WWII, railroads moved practically all the men and supplies of the American Expeditionary Force to seaports. 
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• From 1 Dec 1941 to 30 Aug 1945, U.S. railroads carried approximately 44-million service men and women in special troop trains, hospital trains and in special cars attached to regular trains.
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• The first known instance of mail being moved by rail occurred in South Carolina in Nov 1831. By 1840, railroads had begun to provide space and facilities for handling of the mail enroute. But as the movement of mail by air grew, the railroads' mail business declined. The last mail run, between Washington and New York, was in June 1977. 
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• What are the commodities carried by railroads? Coal ranks first in tonage, followed by farm products, chemicals, nonmetallic minerals, food and kindred products, frozen products, lumber and wood products.
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• Railroads are deemed vital to the U.S. economy. The steel industry depends on railroads to deliver its ore and coat; the car industry depends on railroads to deliver the steel and parts of making cars and then to carry cars to their destination. 
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• There are more railroad-railroading websites available to you than you likely have time for. Use Google and go for it! 
• The place your railroading ancestor lived
• The railroad he worked for
• Railroads have historical societies and archives!

 Remember all the good railroads have done for our country, and still do, the next time you're stuck seemingly forever at a railroad crossing. 

Fairchild Air Force Base

 Those of you who drive onto Fairchild Air Force Base have surely noticed the B-52 parked a short ways inside the gate. Well, we know for sure that my father, Col. Francis H. Potter, commanded that very plane for many missions during the Cold War of the 70s. How do we know that? This is a photo of that B-52 and our son, Benjamin, and his son Austin. Ben researched the serial number of that plane and discovered this wonderful bit of family history. And to think that it was OUR father's plane that was chosen for permanent display!

Fairchild has quite a history. Several battles of U.S. Cavalry vs. Native Americans happened in that very patch of ground. Groups of immigrant settlers established homes, farms and orchards in that same area. The area looked prime for wheat farming. But Spokane was growing in population and that population needed transportation and the opportunity for business. 

By 1939, Spokane was in a serious business decline when James A. Ford came to the rescue. Ford had been active with the Spokane Chamber of Commerce since 1917 and during that time he had worked incessantly to bring aviation to Spokane. But the Army Signal Corps reported that "the city is located in a valley between high hills, with contrary winds and there will never be much, if any, aviation in Spokane."

At this time, Spokane has two airlines flying into Felts Field, United and Northwest. Ford knew Spokane would soon need a bigger airport. And, just as important, he could see the war clouds gathering around the world and hoped a larger airport would attract an Army Air Force Base. 

Ford's work worked and in 1940 a WPA project started to clear and level the county land, donated by the county, for the new field and the Army Air Forces moved right in. The airport was renamed Geiger Field; after WWII it became Spokane International Airport. 

About this same time, the announcement was made that the Army Air Force needed a separate and larger base for its operations. Again, James Ford to the rescue. It was a real battle of words, but those on the West side of the state wanted the new depot in their backyard. 

The Spokesman Review trumpeted the headline on September 11, 1941, that Spokane would get the $20-million air depot. This was great news for Spokane for it meant an estimated $8-million dollar payroll in the area due to 5400 new jobs. Not to mention the military personnel's spending in the area. 

It turned out that having a military depot so close to a civilian airfield had its advantages, primarily being that a rail line bisected the area. 

Citizens of Spokane might have been jubilant but the eleven farmer-land-owners were not. Four sections of prime wheat land would now be gone forever. 

The town of Airway Heights got its start during the war years mostly because there was no military family housing at the depot. In 1955, the town of Airway Heights was incorporated. 

In 1951, the name was changed from Spokane Air Force Base to Fairchild Air Force Base in honor of Gen. Muir S. Fairchild, a native of Bellingham, Washington. 

(Thanks to a 1976 little book by Peggy Bal, Fairchild: Heritage of the Spokane Plains. Please forgive me if I garbled the facts a bit.) 

Archives Or Beehives?

I'll admit I'm stretching a bit here, but I did catch your attention, didn't I?

ARCHIVES. What comes to mind when you hear or read that word? Records? Information? Papers? Ledgers? Books? Rolls? Files? History? Information? All of the above??

What IS an archive: "It's a collection of historical documents or records providing information bout a place, institution or group of people." 

In other (crazy comparison) words, it's a place where genealogists find honey!!

There are probably a dozen archives that you might-could access to find the family information you're seeking. Every U.S. state has archives and most of the world's countries do too. They're not like public libraries.... walk in, check the catalog, pull a book off the shelf and away you go. Archives are places where history is stored. We can access it but it stays safely guarded away. 

Lucky for us, there are most usually finding aids for most any archive. (Good grammar, eh?) 

Here in Spokane we have the Eastern Washington State Historical Society archive housed in the Joel E. Ferris Library at the MAC. If you have Inland Northwest ancestors, make an appointment and GO.

We also have the Washington State Library Digital Collections and the Washington Rural Heritage memory project (aka archive). Ever heard of the Northwest Digital Heritage (for WA and OR)? Of course we have the Eastern Washington Branch of the Washington State Archives out in Cheney. 

Here's maybe a new one for you: ArchiveGrid. This is a collection of over 5million "archival material descriptions ...... harvested from the web." These documents are described as "historical documents, personal papers, family histories and more." Try it, you just might find the "honey." 

How about InternetArchive? This is an American digital library that has quickly become a major destination to those researching their family history online. InternetArchive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, websites, music and much more. To use this site, you sign up for an account and then can download material to your account (your computer) to use at your leisure. Ah, the honey is there, no??

Click to the Society of American Archivists and download their free "Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research." 

Ancestor In The California Gold Rush?

 This 33-cent stamp, issued in 1999, commemorated the California Gold Rush. Did you have an answer who "went west" to make his fortune........ but didn't...... and possibly was never heard from again? 

I won't recount the history of how gold was discovered; that's easy finding-reading. I will explain that those eager gold seekers from the East who managed to make it to California by the end of 1849 numbered about 90,000. 

Life in the gold fields was pretty rough; mining work was hard and most finds were minimal. Within a year or two many gave up and, if they had the means, returned home.

The fall 2009 issue of New England Ancestors, carried an article on this topic, written by Nancy Peterson, CG. I quote:

"No official documents collected the names of fortune seekers who traveled to California. No comprehensive governmental passenger lists recorded the names of the fortune seekers who sailed to California via Panama or San Francisco. We learn of journeys to the gold fields from diaries and letters, from California newspaper listings of new arrivals, and from reminiscences written many years later. Newspapers "back home" often printed news and letters from the California-bound adventurers."

The article continued, "Perhaps the most comprehensive resource about the Overland route is J.S. Holliday's The World Rushed In. This book is based upon accounts by more than 500 men about their westward journeys and early lives in California. The book's sources serve as an excellent starting point in the search for these emigrants."

Certainly, there are other resources to be found; use Google. Check out CyndisList and the FamilySearch.org/Wiki. 

At the conclusion of her article, Peterson states: "for a comprehensive well-annotated source covering all aspect of the gold rush, see Kenneth N. Owens, Riches for All: The California Gold Rush and the World, published in 2002. I just checked (Dec 2023):

Colfax, Whitman County, Washington

 

My kiddos used to live in Pullman and so I've driven through Colfax a hundred times but I've seldom stopped. My bad, for this little town has a history AND, today, some cute little shops.

Colfax lies in the heart of the rolling Palouse hills, and is bisected by the Palouse River. Historic Steptoe Butte can be seen to the north. 

In 2022, Colfax celebrated their 150th year anniversary. In 1870, James Perkins was the first white man to see the potential in this little valley and envisioned a nice little town. Perkins and his fellow settler, Thomas Smith, soon scouted a site for a lumber mill. By 1871, the mill cut its first lumber and had its first log drive. This lumber, ordered by Waitsburg businessman, Anderson Cox, recognized the need for lumber for buildings in order that the area towns thrive. After the sawmill was established on the Palouse River, the town quickly sprang up around it. Pine trees that once covered the hills were turned into lumber for the immigrants' homes. 

Perkins originally named the town Belleville, perhaps after a former girlfriend named Belle or perhaps after his hometown of Belleville, Indiana. But since his wife was not named Belle, the town name soon was changed to Colfax, to honor U.S. Vice President Schuyler Colfax in 1873. 

There are many inviting little shops: The Colfax Mercantile, Tick Klock Drug, the Dusty Attic and Palouse River Quilts. The little hamburger place on the east side of main street has been a staple for years..........and offers great burgers! 

The Whitman County Historical Society maintains the Perkins House where the family lived from 1887 from into the 1960s, when it was sold to the Whitman County Historical Society. It is open for visits. 

One story, told to me by a friend years ago whose husband was on the Spokane police force, explained that largely unknown in a basement of a downtown building was a complete, ready-to-go, command center in case of an environmental catastrophe on the West side, ie, Olympia. True? Wasn't able to verify that story. Do you know?

Family of Family Tree

 

FamilyTree is not just a magazine; not just a website and definitely not to be overlooked! There is education and learning contained and offered here that one might could say this is "one stop shopping." 

The magazine comes six times per year; the May/June 2023 issue (pictured above) carried that multi-page article on Colonial Roots.  In the "5 Questions with Sunny Jane Morton," she answered the question "How to build your own research guide for a country or region" you've never researched before?" Sunny's answer: Start with the FamilySearch Research WIKI; learn about that place's language, culture, religions, occupations and more. Browse categories about that place and create your own "research notebook."  Another article was "How To Write To Know," about writing a really good, readable, family history. How can you go wrong with information like that??b

The magazine carries special inserts each month too. These are Cheat Sheets (how to do XXX) and State Research Guides. These are offered for sale on the FamilyTree website but come free with magazine subscription. 

Last but not least, the website, www.familytreemagazine.com, offers MANY different research aids and helps; some for free and some for small money. 

Subscriptons can be ordered for a print magazine or an e-magazine; your choice. But think about it........... what could be better for a birthday present to you????

Time for Trivia!

 

Endogamy:  Know what that means? According to the website of the International Society for Genetic Genealogy, endogamy "is the practice of marrying within the same ethnic, cultural, social, religious or tribal group."  Examples of endogamous groups include Jews, Polynesians, Mennonites, Amish, Acadians, French Canadians and folks from many Arab countries.

FamilySearchCenter: Do you have all the funds to allow subscriptions to the many paid genealogy websites that you'd like to use? Ha, not me either. Did you know that there are about 30 subscription websites that you can use FOR FREE at any FamilySearch Center! Go and you can pick up a 2-page, small-print, handout listing all these sites. Don't know where a FamilySearchCenter is? They're all listed on our EWGSI.org website.

Commonwealth: What is a "commonwealth?" At the time of the founding of the United States, the designation "Commonwealth" carried with it the implication of a greater degree of self-government that did the word "state." Four states officially label themselves as "Commonwealths," rather than "States." They are Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. It is also the designation of Puerto Rico.

Worth of old county histories: Knowing my ancestor, Caleb Carr, was a Baptist minister, 1810ish, who lived in Erie County, New York, I happily hefted the 500-page Centennial History of Erie County from the shelf and flipped it to the back......... alas, no index. Of course, published in 1876, these older books don't have indexes. (Unless more recently done and then usually in a stand-alone volume.) BUT the hour I spent browsing through the pages was not a waste of time. I didn't find any mention of Rev. Carr but I did learn about the early history of the county. Tidbits such as this:  "The structures under which the early families sheltered themselves and their families hardly rose even to the dignity of log houses. They were frequently mere cabins of small logs, (there not being help enough to handle large ones) covered with bark. Sometimes there was a floor of split logs, or "puncheons," sometimes none. A log house 16-feet square, with a shingle roof, a board floor and a window containing six lights of glass, was a decidedly stylish residence and its owner was in some danger of being disliked as a bloated aristocrat." 

Quote from Thomas Jefferson: "How sublime to look down into the workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder..... all fabricated at our feet! And the fgorious sun gilding the tops of the mountains and giving life to all nature."

Quotes from Garrison Keillor: "Some people get what they want. Some people get what they got."  ......  "After all is said and one, more is said than is done." 

Quote from Ethel Mertz, "I Love Lucy,"  "Just because we're married to men doesn't mean we've got anything in common with them."

Quote from AAA about travel: "Thou shalt, when in Rome, do somewhat as the Romans do, and if in difficulty, thou shalt use thy common sense and much friendliness.'