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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial id="role_document"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>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 size=2
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'>Ohio</span></font><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> about 1835 and the
second was born in </span></font><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Iowa</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'> about 1845 and then the third about 1850. They came to </span></font><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'>Oregon</span></font><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> about 1852. Do you
have any ideas on this?</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Thanks,</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Dale</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;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:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>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>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=blue
face="Californian FB"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Californian FB";
color:blue'>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:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>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:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>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:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>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:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>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>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> </span></font></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Carla </span></font></p>
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