Betty - Your message comes through very clear. That is what I have done in writing the history of my home town and my family where I was born in 1916 near Farmington and grew up there. My mother was born and grew up there. My grandfather came there in 1880 in a wagon to homestead. He was one year old when he came across the Oregon Trail with his father, and grandfather and cousins in 1853. I have a full history of that family as well as several others. At my age I am thankful I have been able to do these things before I became too old to work any more. That time will be approaching soon. I was able to acquire the information of the Belshaw family Oregon Trail experiences and succeeded in getting the two diaries that were written by two members of the family on that trip edited by a Professor of History at the University of Nabraska at Omaha. The book was published by Ye Galleon Press at Fairfield in 2000. I was able to purchase many copies of that book, "Crossing the Plains to Oregon in 1853", and am now getting these put in archives and libraries all along this route and in Oregon and Washington where these famlies now live. This is one great book. You would be excited to read it. Marshall Belshaw Shore ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bette Butcher Topp" <toppline@comcast.net> To: <WA-EWGS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 2:14 PM Subject: [EWGS] Thought this was interesting! > The Case for Documenting Yourself: by Jeff Scism - was in Rootsweb > Review 1999 [I have taken the liberty of shortening the article] > > "The search for personal history and its relationship to our > personal lives makes history come alive. The lesson of genealogy isn't > simply a knowledge of what happened in the past, but also what we know > about our present. In the future, the history documented and saved for > future reference will be the known events of our contemporary past. Our > views from the end of the 20th century will be a classical perspective > at the end of the 21st century. > To put this concept in perspective, think about your family research > and the documentation you find about your 19th century ancestors. How > does that information impact the data you are saving about the lives of > the members of your current family? To research the past and store that > information for easy future retrieval will be the legacy of today's > genealogist/hstorian. But a greater legacy will be the way we store > information about ourselves. Making the research of our family's past a > priority now but failing to document our own involvement in current > history is to shortchange the future. > How many of us have an ancestor's actual autobiography written in > his or her own hand? How many of us can say we "know" these ancestors? > Right now you are a family historian studying the lives of all who came > before you. Are you documenting your own life in a "hard" form for the > genealogists of the future, so that in the year 2100 your > great-great-grandchildren will be able to say they "know" you? > Documenting your life the way you would want your ancestors to be > documented is the first step to being the person your descendants will > know from the past, and a journal of your thoughts on current events > will be a marker and a reference valuable to many, not just your > descendants. > What I would like to add after retrospect is that fewer people are > writing ON paper. And as we all know, the electronic documents we work > with everyday can vanish in an instant, and be forever lost. > BACK UP your data, all of it, onto a CD (or multiple copies) and > store it away from your computer, your home and in a safe place when it > will still be known to be if something tragic happens and by all means, > mention it in your will. > Remember your working notes tell an important story, your FINISHED > sections should be clearly findable and PRINTED OUT! > So make sure that the work survives to be passed on to the next > generation, who hopefully will continue it." > ~~~~~ > I know that we all intend to write our own story and save it for the > next couple generations but we need to be serious about it. Maybe you > can start being serious during this summer. > > Bette > -- > > The new email address is now: toppline@comcast.net************ > > *****Hope you will visit my homepage: > http://home.comcast.net/~toppline/homepage.htm > > You can find my ahnentafel chart at > http://home.comcast.net/~toppline/antafl.htm > > > > > ==== WA-EWGS Mailing List ==== > October 12 US Military Research > Revolutionary War Doris Woodward

I agree with what you say, Marshall. I have looked over your book on Farmington and found it to be exceptional. And the most important thing is that you have put that information out there for all future genealogists and historians to be able to see it. If we all did that, can you imagine how the next several generations would be saying - how lucky we all are that our greats thought far ahead and made sure that we could get their stories. Thanks for the note and I do appreciate what you have done. Bette ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marshall Shore" <mbs@arias.net> To: <WA-EWGS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, July 12, 2004 8:26 PM Subject: Re: [EWGS] Thought this was interesting! > Betty - Your message comes through very clear. That is what I have done in > writing the history of my home town and my family where I was born in 1916 > near Farmington and grew up there. My mother was born and grew up there. > My grandfather came there in 1880 in a wagon to homestead. He was one year > old when he came across the Oregon Trail with his father, and grandfather > and cousins in 1853. I have a full history of that family as well as > several others. At my age I am thankful I have been able to do these things > before I became too old to work any more. That time will be approaching > soon. > I was able to acquire the information of the Belshaw family Oregon Trail > experiences and succeeded in getting the two diaries that were written by > two members of the family on that trip edited by a Professor of History at > the University of Nabraska at Omaha. The book was published by Ye Galleon > Press at Fairfield in 2000. I was able to purchase many copies of that > book, "Crossing the Plains to Oregon in 1853", and am now getting these put > in archives and libraries all along this route and in Oregon and Washington > where these famlies now live. This is one great book. You would be excited > to read it. > Marshall Belshaw Shore > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Bette Butcher Topp" <toppline@comcast.net> > To: <WA-EWGS-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 2:14 PM > Subject: [EWGS] Thought this was interesting! > > > > The Case for Documenting Yourself: by Jeff Scism - was in Rootsweb > > Review 1999 [I have taken the liberty of shortening the article] > > > > "The search for personal history and its relationship to our > > personal lives makes history come alive. The lesson of genealogy isn't > > simply a knowledge of what happened in the past, but also what we know > > about our present. In the future, the history documented and saved for > > future reference will be the known events of our contemporary past. Our > > views from the end of the 20th century will be a classical perspective > > at the end of the 21st century. > > To put this concept in perspective, think about your family research > > and the documentation you find about your 19th century ancestors. How > > does that information impact the data you are saving about the lives of > > the members of your current family? To research the past and store that > > information for easy future retrieval will be the legacy of today's > > genealogist/hstorian. But a greater legacy will be the way we store > > information about ourselves. Making the research of our family's past a > > priority now but failing to document our own involvement in current > > history is to shortchange the future. > > How many of us have an ancestor's actual autobiography written in > > his or her own hand? How many of us can say we "know" these ancestors? > > Right now you are a family historian studying the lives of all who came > > before you. Are you documenting your own life in a "hard" form for the > > genealogists of the future, so that in the year 2100 your > > great-great-grandchildren will be able to say they "know" you? > > Documenting your life the way you would want your ancestors to be > > documented is the first step to being the person your descendants will > > know from the past, and a journal of your thoughts on current events > > will be a marker and a reference valuable to many, not just your > > descendants. > > What I would like to add after retrospect is that fewer people are > > writing ON paper. And as we all know, the electronic documents we work > > with everyday can vanish in an instant, and be forever lost. > > BACK UP your data, all of it, onto a CD (or multiple copies) and > > store it away from your computer, your home and in a safe place when it > > will still be known to be if something tragic happens and by all means, > > mention it in your will. > > Remember your working notes tell an important story, your FINISHED > > sections should be clearly findable and PRINTED OUT! > > So make sure that the work survives to be passed on to the next > > generation, who hopefully will continue it." > > ~~~~~ > > I know that we all intend to write our own story and save it for the > > next couple generations but we need to be serious about it. Maybe you > > can start being serious during this summer. > > > > Bette > > -- > > > > The new email address is now: toppline@comcast.net************ > > > > *****Hope you will visit my homepage: > > http://home.comcast.net/~toppline/homepage.htm > > > > You can find my ahnentafel chart at > > http://home.comcast.net/~toppline/antafl.htm > > > > > > > > > > ==== WA-EWGS Mailing List ==== > > October 12 US Military Research > > Revolutionary War Doris Woodward > > > > ==== WA-EWGS Mailing List ==== > November 9 US Military Research > War of 1812 Shirley Penna-Oakes >