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<DIV>In the 1700's and 1800's it was not uncommon to have large
families. And one may </DIV>
<DIV>find two children of the same name, one having died and the the next
surviving. The</DIV>
<DIV>span between children is the reason for the legal doctrine
of the fertile octagarion in</DIV>
<DIV>the common law. And of course as mentioned, there was always the
matter of </DIV>
<DIV>micarriage. We have a first son who was 12 when he drowned. His
namesake</DIV>
<DIV>was the youngest of 10 children and survived.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=dharguess@coastline.edu
href="mailto:dharguess@coastline.edu">Harguess, Dale</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=or-roots@sosinet.sos.state.or.us
href="mailto:or-roots@sosinet.sos.state.or.us">or-roots@sosinet.sos.state.or.us</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, September 27, 2005 8:48
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> RE: [or-roots] Genealogy and
Family History</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Your words reminded
me of one of my mystery ancestors. I can’t for the life of me figure out
why there is such a length of time between the births of his first and second
child. I do not know what was going on at that time in history
(other than Indian wars) and since he was a farmer I can’t really imagine why
there would be a ten year span between his first and second child. He
had a cousin about the same age and he too had about 10 years between his
first and second child. The first child was born in </SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Ohio</SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> about 1835 and the
second was born in </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Iowa</SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> about 1845 and then
the third about 1850. They came to </SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial
color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Oregon</SPAN></FONT><FONT
face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> about 1852. Do
you have any ideas on this?</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Thanks,</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Dale</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Tahoma size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">-----Original
Message-----<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B>
or-roots-admin@sosinet.sos.state.or.us
[mailto:or-roots-admin@sosinet.sos.state.or.us] <B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">On Behalf Of
</SPAN></B>CKlooster@aol.com<BR><B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Monday, September 26, 2005 6:43
PM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B>
or-roots@sosinet.sos.state.or.us<BR><B><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> [or-roots] Genealogy and Family
History</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I've
done worked on my family lines since the early 1970's and it complimented
nicely an interest in history and an inate curiousity. It was
frustrating, however, to have names and places and dates but no stories handed
down to flesh these ancestors out. I was content with that until some
information about the support group called <EM><I><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Adult Children of Alcohol Parents and Dysfunctional
Families </SPAN></FONT></I></EM>crossed my desk one day. I scanned
through it because it pertains to my job...and suddenly something struck me,
so I read the material. I realized then that whether or not we are
children of alcoholic parents and dysfunctional families, who and what our
ancestors were has a definite impact on who we are as people...and I'm not
just talking about brown eyes or curly hair. Here is a story that
was told at a national mental health meeting that I
attended:</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face="Californian FB"
color=blue size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Californian FB'">A new
husband watched fondly as his young wife prepared dinner in the kitchen of
their apartment. She placed a pot roast on the cutting board and
carefully sliced it in half. She then placed the meat in a roasting pan
with one slice piled precisely on top of the other and put it in the
over. Puzzled, the man asked why she'd cut the roast in two.
"That's the way you cook pot roast" she replied, "My mom makes the best pot
roast and that's the way she cooks it.". The next time they were at his
in-law's house the young man brought up the subject of pot roast, "I'm curious
about why you cut the roast in two." he said. The mother-in-law looked
at him with a puzzled expression and replied, " I don't know why it needs to
cook that way, I guess because it cooks better. My mother always cooked
hers that way.". Once the subject had been raised, there was much
discussion and nobody had a definitive answer. "I'll settle this," the
mother-in-law said, "I'll call my mother and ask her why." Grandma
answered the telephone and the question was put to her; there was a long pause
and Grandma said, "I don't know why you cut the roast in half, but I had to
because I only had a very small roasting pan.".</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The
point of this is that traits and beliefs and ideas are often passed along to
us unwittingly. One technigue taught by ACOA is to do a family
inventory. You begin with the earliest ancestor that you know and
write down eveyrthing that you know about them...dates and places; how
many children in their family; how old their parents were; how old they were
when they married and began to have children; family legends;
occupation...everything you can think of. For the furthest back
ancestors that may only be a name and a date and a place. You work
forward, taking each person as an individual and writing down eveything you
know or have heard. Once you have completed this task (and it's a
lot more difficult for those of us who've been doing genealogy for
awhile) you start looking at what was going on in the world at the time these
people were alive and thinking of how it may have impacted their lives.
I have an ancestor who was in the Civil War. At 25 he married a
very young girl and promptly moved with her to Indiana/Illinois where his
parents lived. Leaving her pregnant and with his parents, he went
off to war. There she was, young, pregnant, and living with her
in-laws far from her own family. When Johnny came marching home again he
stayed just long enough for her to become pregnant a second time before
he went off to the silver mines of California leaving her
behind still with the in-laws. It wasn't until several years later that
he went back to Illinois and gathered up his family to move them to
Oregon. I know only the barest facts about this branch of the family,
but after doing this exercise they became more than just names and
dates. When I look at the lives of their children I begin to see more of
pattern. It's interesting to see that some patterns are traceable
through a number of generations...sometimes right down to
me!</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">If you
do this sort of exercise and make a timeline of what was happening in the
world, you can add quite a bit to the portrait of an ancestor who has only
been a name and date. A picture and a pattern often begins to
appear. Letters and journals and memoirs are terrific when you can
find them, but far too few ancestors leave us that sort of
record. </SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">So yes,
on this list we often digress, but those disgressions add to the
history...even if the history is comparatively
recent.</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">And, as
can be seen by the number of facts that quickly appear as the result of most
queries, we actually do some genealogical research from time to
time!</SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN></FONT> </P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><FONT face=Arial color=black
size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Carla </SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>