Hello, I'm happy to report that we have received our very first Profile. I am including it below, although it won't have any special formatting. For a better visual, go to our Myfamily site and look under "Review" in a new category called "Profiles" Now... as you read, I'd like to get your sincere opinion about the questions which are asked, which I have mentioned are standardized ones and which do not particularly address our Evanses. For myself, I Love getting the personal answers, the ones that tell about what life was like years ago. What I would like to see added are questions which would concentrate on our EVANSES as EVANSES; or tell stories that your elders told about the Evans family history? So, can you all come up with some? You can contribute on or off the list and I will revise the standardized questions accordingly. Note below that I am not identifying our contributor who has chosen to remain anonymous. This is wise, I think, because of the importance of the privacy of living people on the internet. So it is just "Profile #1".... If you submit a Profile and you don't really care if your identity is known, let me know. But, for now, this is the way we will proceed. OK.... here we go: ---------------------- 1 PROFILE #1 Here are some suggested interview questions by the source [Kimberly Powell] listed below. Feel free to substitute questions of your own. These are just suggested questions to help you get going. 1. What is your full name? Why did your parents select this name for you? Did you have a nickname? Living, my middle name is after my maternal Grandfather's middle name, not sure about the first name. Red. 2. When and where were you born? Living specimen born in rural America in my parents bedroom delivered by a country Doctor and a neighbor lady assisting. 3. How did your family come to live there? Looking for farm land that wasn't dried up and blowing away. 4. Were there other family members in the area? Who? Father, Mother, two sisters & two brothers. 5. What was the house (apartment, farm, etc.) like? How many rooms? Bathrooms? Did it have electricity? Indoor plumbing? Telephones? The house was 4 rooms with an attic used as bedrooms for the children. The farm was rolling to steep with a creek through it and a dirt/gravel road dividing it. Electricity was not to arrive for another 20 years. The bathroom was a small building built over a pit at the back of the yard area. Water for whatever purpose was hand carried by bucket from a well about 150 feet from the house. Telephones were not to arrive for yet another 10 years. A considerable amount of transportation was by horse drawn conveyance even though a vehicle was owned. Farming was done with horses during this time frame as the depression took the mechanized equipment and that wasn't to return until nearly 10 years later. Television didn't come along until about the time of electricity and the first was on a little 8 or 10 inch round screen and Howdy Doody was the children show of the era. 6. Were there any special items in the house that you remember? Piano 7. What is your earliest childhood memory? At about 18 months of age and sitting in my iron baby bed, watching our home burn down from a break in the chimney. 8. Describe the personalities of your family members. Hard working, fun loving, enjoyed a good competitive game, family oriented. 9. What kind of games did you play growing up? Hide & seek, Red Rover, push the hoop, swimming, baseball, cards, checkers, Chinese checkers, horse shoes, hunting. 10. What was your favorite toy and why? About any toy received was a favorite until the next event because it was the only toy until the next event. And that event might bring needed clothes which made the favorite toy continue to be a favorite for a long time. Generally, two events were celebrated with gifts, birthdays and Christmas. 11. What was your favorite thing to do for fun (movies, beach, etc.)? Riding my pony which was a quarter horse. Going to the timber with our father to cut the winter's supply of fire wood. It always started with trimming up a dead tree and starting a bonfire where we could get warm if need be. Then came the sawing of the logs with one and two man crosscut saws, splitting the logs into firewood size with a splitting sledge and loading into the wagon. 12. Did you have family chores? What were they? Which was your least favorite? Wash dishes & carry fire wood until big enough to carry water, milk cows, feed livestock, riding my pony to the field to carry fresh water to the hay crew, threshing crew and such. Riding my pony to bring the milk cows in to milk of an evening. Sloping the hogs, feeding the sheep, and gathering eggs. Least enjoyed (actually disliked) was chopping weeds around the farm buildings area during the summer months. This was only bad in my mind where I made it the most terrible thing that could ever happen to me until I got older and realized, it is all in a days work and the harder and faster you work at it, the sooner it is done and you move on to something else. 13. Did you receive an allowance? How much? Did you save your money or spend it? No. It became a ritual to go to town on Saturday evening to take the cream and eggs in to market and pick up staples like flour, sugar, etc., and visiting with all the others around the community that did the same. Sometimes when there was a little extra, a nickel, dime or even on occasion, a quarter would be received to spend. This usually was used to buy a little candy or nuts, or in the case of a quarter, go to the movie show and get a bag of popcorn. Larger amounts received from the sale of a hand raised orphan lamb was used to buy the first and only used bicycle ever own. Otherwise, those went for clothes and other necessities. Usually one pair of shoes per year and two pair of over alls with Mom making the shirts from flour sakes. Sometimes even made the overalls from hand-me-down adult overalls. 14. What was school like for you as a child? What were your best and worst subjects? Where did you attend grade school? High school? College? One room school house perhaps 30 feet by 30 feet with eight grades sitting at their desks in the room. A black board on one wall, another wall full of windows, one wall left for special hangings and the other wall held a library of sorts. Usually the Book of Knowledge, Dictionary, various level course material and reading material. High school was attended in a small rural community and college credit with the University of Wisconsin and the real education came from the school of hard knocks, applying one's self to the every day task of surviving in this world seemed to require learning about every occupation that made up a working community. 15. What school activities and sports did you participate in? Didn't have time for organized sports. Work came first. 16. Do you remember any fads from your youth? Popular hairstyles? Clothes? The flapper era but we had neither money or the time to participate. 17. Who were your childhood heroes? I wouldn't refer to them as hero's but the movies were showing Tom Mix, Lone Ranger, Tarzan, Johnny MacBrown, etc., some silent. 18. What were your favorite songs and music? We sang a lot of religious songs although I remember there were other songs, just can't remember the names. 19. Did you have any pets? If so, what kind and what were their names? We always had a dog to help with the livestock and cats to control the mice. Rover was an early dog, Spot was another I had when in my early teens that I had to take out and shoot because he began sneaking up on people and biting them. 20. What was your religion growing up? What church, if any, did you attend? Baptist. Our community church was re-activated the year I was born and many years later was abandoned again and sold, at which time, I was secretary treasurer. 21. Were you ever mentioned in a newspaper? When I went into the military. 22. Who were your friends when you were growing up? Neighbor children. 23. What world events had the most impact on you while you were growing up? Did any of them personally affect your family? World War II 24. Describe a typical family dinner. Did you all eat together as a family? Who did the cooking? What were your favorite foods? Plenty of vegetables harvested from our own garden, meat from the animals we raised, family all ate together unless good reason, Mother did the cooking with some help from the girls. 25. How were holidays (birthdays, Christmas, etc.) celebrated in your family? Did your family have special traditions? Birthdays, Christmas and Easter were always acknowledged and the basic tradition was for all the family to be together for fellowship and good food. 26. How is the world today different from what it was like when you were a child? Hardly comparable, especially with the advent of electronics. Even electricity was a dramatic change from reading and doing school home work by the light of a coal oil lamp or sometimes the much better light of a White gas lantern. However, due to the cost of gas and mantles, the White gas lantern was not used regularly. 27. Who was the oldest relative you remember as a child? What do you remember about them? My Grandfather, my mother's father, whom I saw once the year before he died. I never knew any of my other Grandparents, they having expired many years earlier. 28. What do you know about your family surname? Not nearly enough and 35 years ago, knew almost nothing about the family. I believe it to be of French origin but can't prove that. I spent about 20 years trying to determine who my surname family was because my Grandfather, whom my father did not know due to family circumstances, alternated his given names which made him almost impossible to track. I still can't prove I have found his death and burial place. 29. Is there a naming tradition in your family, such as always giving the firstborn son the name of his paternal grandfather? Not really. 30. What stories have come down to you about your parents? Grandparents? More distant ancestors? My paternal Great Grandfather was an Irish immigrant during the potato famine in Ireland. Eventually married my paternal Grandmother as his second known marriage, her third, and after establishing their family in Illinois, homesteaded on the Dakota Territory prairies. Supposedly a poem of the journey "with a horse and a plow, and a calf and a cow, we arrived where we live now." 31. Are there any stories about famous or infamous relatives in your family? The nearest to that description would be a 4th Great Grandfather who per records, spent most of his life fighting in the militias, Revolutionary War, Indian skirmishes, etc., and still was fortunate to died at the home of his daughter where he was living, at the ripe old age of 82. 32. Have any recipes been passed down to you from family members? 33. Are there any physical characteristics that run in your family? Large strong hands are prevalent. 34. Are there any special heirlooms, photos, bibles or other memorabilia that have been passed down in your family? Copies of several old family photos have been obtained over the last 30 plus years but handed down photos include the wedding photos of my parents, a framed photo of my maternal Grandparents wedding photo, a photo of my maternal Great Grand Parent's and family, taken in 1888, the Bible carried to the Dakota Territory by my paternal Great Grandmother and my brother has a charcoal portrait of our paternal Great Grandparents. Some of the salvaged copies consist of Tin Types of my maternal Great Great Grandparents. Copy of the teaching certificate of my Great Great Grandfather in 1846. 35. What was the full name of your spouse? Siblings? Parents? No answer. Private 36. When and how did you meet your spouse? What did you do on dates? She worked as a car hop at a drive-in eating establishment where she came out to the vehicle and took orders and then delivered the prepared food. Cruised, movies, hung out with others. 37. What was it like when you proposed (or were proposed to)? Where and when did it happen? How did you feel? I am not sure I remember that from 53 years ago. 38. Where and when did you get married? Eloped to a marriage mill with no waiting period - she was 16 days past 16 & I was just short of 22 39. What memory stands out the most from your wedding day? The doctor drawing the blood offered to let her draw mine. 41. What do you believe is the key to a successful marriage? Put at least as much effort into it as you would into anything else you wish to retain. 42. How did you find out your were going to be a parent for the first time? She said she thought she might be and the doctor confirmed it. 43. Why did you choose your children's names? Wife's decision. 44. What was your proudest moment as a parent? To be the parent of healthy children. 45. What did your family enjoy doing together? A long list might be made but actually, everything was done as a family or not done at all. 46. What was your profession and how did you choose it? Jack of all trades and master of none. Learned to do about anything needed to sustain the daily lives of a family. 47. If you could have had any other profession what would it have been? Why wasn't it your first choice? Actually, all but one of my occupations was enjoyed. Becoming wealthy and rise above all the daily trauma would have been nice but would have taken a lot of fun out of life - or added a different kind of problem. 48. Of all the things you learned from your parents, which do you feel was the most valuable? Being honest, hard working, self sufficient, true to beliefs and thyself. 49. What accomplishments were you the most proud of? Surviving all these years and always being a contributor rather than a receiver. 50. What is the one thing you most want people to remember about you? That I am worth remembering. The above comes from: "Fifty Questions for Family History Interviews: What to Ask the Relatives" By Kimberly Powell <http://genealogy.about.com/mbiopage.htm>