Piecing Together the Past

Today’s genealogical adventure isn't about my family, but a tale of a family heirloom-in-the-making finding its way home. As I post this blog, this story is still unfolding so I will provide updates in the future.

This is a story about locating a proper owner for beautiful vintage quilt blocks, retold via excerpts from email exchanges I had with another genealogist. Enjoy!


Monday, January 23, 2006

Tracee~

As a fellow family historian, I have an exciting story to share with you. I was at a wonderful estate auction this weekend in Julesburg, Colorado. One lot consisted of a box of fabric scraps and included a partially completed yellow and white name quilt. I bid $10 and came home with a new research project and several crafting projects. Of course as an amateur genealogist, my goal was to find a proper home for the yet-to-be completed quilt. I figured that if I couldn't discover any interested descendants, I would have a very beautiful quilt for myself.

After analyzing the contents of my cardboard box, I realize that I have fifteen 8 1/2 inch "name" quilt blocks as well as solid yellow squares of fabric to complete the quilt. The families embroidered on the squares include:

* Bohling, Henry
* Bohling, William
* Bryan, J. H.
* Farquharson, Jim
* Feldkamp, W.C.
* Lewick, Alvin
* Luck, F. J.
* Lyne, Tom
* Maher, William
* Meili, Henry
* Panzer, Herman
* Rohwen, Henry
* Servien, William
* Whiteside, Eva
* Zier

Basically, I have enough pieces to complete a 40 x 62 inch quilt if one were to add a single block naming the final quilter (perhaps documenting the history and creation of the quilt)! Clearly my box of scraps has the potential to become an awesome family treasure when finished.

I hopped onto to the internet and hunted throughout the United States. I reviewed the 1930 censuses and tried to find a common link between these families. I ultimately discovered that all of the names embroidered on the quilt blocks were farm families from Lincoln County, Kansas and many were pioneers to the area. Upon further research, I noticed that you were one of the County Coordinators for the Lincoln County GenWeb site and that your grandfather was Alvin Lewick!

Eureka!

Last night, I continued to research the families, but wasn't unable to determine the exact common link between the names. I suspect that these families may have all contributed to a common church fund raiser. Perhaps you will know. Most of the wives are fairly young and had children, so it makes sense that these women would have been friends. However, I don't think these blocks were intended to become a friendship quilt as all but one block name "Mr. and Mrs." so-and-so.

Let me know if you or someone in your family is interested in this quilt. I would be thrilled to send it to you in the next day or two. Of course, I'll include my research notes. If quilting isn't your thing, just let me know. My feelings won't be hurt. I'll donate it to your local historical society.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Relatively yours,

Kate Johnson


Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Kate:

Eureka is right! I'm a genealogist, historian, AND QUILTER.

(Pause for amazement!)

Yes, yes, yes, I would love to have this! Those names all seem to be families from Valley Township. Bohling, Bryan, Maher, Panzer are all names in my tree; lots of marrying between these families since these people were pretty restricted to their own neighborhoods back in the day. Maybe it was a quilt intended for a teacher or a preacher or something? Hard to say, but I would LOVE to have it and try to "finish it up."

It was so good of you to track me down; I can't tell you what it means to me. I hope you are repaid in karma a hundredfold!

Thank you seems so inadequate, but thank you thank you thank you!

Gratefully,
Tracee


Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Kate:

I am going to a workshop this weekend to get some advice on finishing the quilt. I [hope] to start researching the names today... I think that the marriage dates for these couples will help us narrow down the date of the quilt quite a bit and that I will have to do at the courthouse when I go to Lincoln, which will be in May. I can do some of it through obits but the marriage records will be quicker and more helpful, I think. So we'll see!

Tracee

I’m Not a Packrat. I’m an Archivist.

In 2000, I came upon my sixth grade autobiography while helping my mother organize her basement in our family home in Clarence, New York. Clean Sweep wouldn’t have signed up for this job in a million years. There wasn’t enough room for the host, let alone a camera man. However, everything stored away in the chaos seemed to have some importance or worth. It would have been easier to organize if the rooms were just filled with junk.

Hidden in a box next to a pile of fabulous 1950s Vogue Pattern magazines, my sister’s high school art projects, and my grandmother’s bridal ensemble, was a short account of my life enclosed in a graphic construction paper cover. It was simply titled ME.* My class report included the spellbinding story of the first 11 years of my life, a chapter describing my dreamy goals for the future, and a 4 generation pedigree chart. I recall that I wasn’t very interested in writing about myself. I thought stories about 11 year old kids were inherently boring. However, the tales of my ancestors fascinated me.

When I was given this assignment, I asked my grandmother for help with my family history. Mimi was a natural story teller who frequently spoke of our ancestors. Sitting at her lovely kitchen table (which was later to become my dining room table), I sketched out a family tree on a note pad as she explained the connections between the generations. I remember revising it over and over again as the branches ran off the edge of the paper as I tried to understand all the relationships between these people. She brought out her collection of family photographs from the bottom drawer of her slant top desk and carried them into the kitchen for me to examine one by one. She was the family caretaker and as a result, had inherited many relatives’ family treasures. I remember feeling like I was traveling through time. I was transported by the magic of the pictures and her stories. I was hooked.

Years later while sorting through almost 50 years of accumulation in my parents’ basement, I also came upon a folded hand drawn pedigree chart that my mother had created based on my grandmother’s recollections (see a section of the chart above). She too, had interest in genealogy and had recorded the information that my sixth grade report had failed to document. Using this chart as my starting point, I began the exploration for my roots. According to my family, this search now seems to border on obsession. It wasn’t long before I learned that family memories frequently have elements of both truth and error.

__________
*In 1996 Katherine Hepburn published her autobiography under the same title!

Why a Family History Blog?

a/k/a Coming to My Census

After spending the last six years researching my family history with more than a healthy intensity, I have come to the inevitable conclusion that I’m never going to be finished. As with many collecting hobbies, I’ve learned that the pleasures of genealogy are all in the hunt. Of course I enjoy having my family data entered into all the appropriate fields in Family Tree Maker and my primary source documents filed away by family group, but I really get a rush from discovering new bits of trivia about my family’s lives and trading stories with other researchers. These are the stories I’m planning to share in this blog.

It will probably be years before I pull together all my findings and share my conclusions with family and far-flung cousins in a formal printed or electronic manner. So, hopefully the accessible structure of the blog will encourage me to write down my thoughts about my research on a somewhat regular basis and provide a vehicle for sharing the excitement of my discoveries with others.

Earlier this week, I corresponded with another Family History blogger, Ralph Brandi. You can check out his site at http://www.brandi.org/geneablogy/. Ralph suggested that his blog was great cousin bait. I loved the expression and used it in my domain name. Thanks, Ralph for your help. Perhaps this blog will lure in a few new “cousins” for me.

If you suspect that you might be one of my far-flung cousins, please email me and we can compare notes. If you have stumbled upon this blog and aren’t related to me, I suspect you will find my musings make pretty dull reading. Other people’s family history is typically pretty deadly. On the other hand, if you have interests in some of the geographic areas from whence my ancestors hailed, you might get some research ideas!

Let me know if you find something in this blog that is particularly helpful to you. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome