Finding Time for Genealogy Part 3

As we got further into this project, I began to realize how much data we had to work with and was happy to see the enthusiasm my students had for what we were beginning to look at. I decided to continue the story with them and take advantage of the great information I had for this part of Reuben's life. Lucky for us, Uncle Reuben kept a journal during his traveling years. We divided his journeys into 30 parts and started mapping them out with colored yarn. We used brown for train travel, red for motorcycle, green for car and blue yarn for steamship and canoe. The questions kept coming as they studied the maps!  

Teamwork!

Lots of discussion!

The next step was to figure out how many miles he traveled. That was a big job but my students dug in and, enthusiastically, got to work! They each made a “map measurer” using a gift ribbon and a marker. They marked 100 miles 10 times according to the legend on the map giving them 1000 mile measuring ribbons.The first group began measuring using their estimating skills. One person stood at the board and wrote the miles for each leg of the journey. Another group measured the next day and either agreed with the measurements or wrote their miles next to the first miles. A third group settled 2 measurements by measuring again. The discussion I heard as I passed these groups was wonderful! I was so happy to see evidence of their growth as learners and inquirers!

Measuring and Recording Data

Another group determined the type of transportation for each trip and coded it with a letter; c for car, ca for canoe, m for motorcycle, etc., on the board.

Transportation Team

By this time I was ready to have my board back so I decided to set up three laptops facing the board and assigned students to type the information we had compiled into Excel. Each typist had a partner to check, point and help make sure they weren't skipping data. Some traded places after awhile.

Working in Excel and adding up the miles.

When they were finished, I combined the three files into one. The class was excited when we put the data up on our Smartboard and I showed them how Excel lets us sort and filter. They used their calculators to add the miles of each mode of transportation. When we were finished, they had figured Uncle Reuben traveled about 19,200 miles between 1924 and 1934. Now they could display the miles according to transportation!

[As a side note: I was curious to find out how close they got to the actual miles with their little ribbons. I took the data file and compared it to actual miles using http://www.freemaptools.com/how-far-is-it-between.htm . I just about fainted when I finished adding them up for myself. They had gotten within 200 miles of the actual mileage! I don't think the kids actually understood how cool that was but I'm sure they recognized the look of pride on their teacher's face!]

Several Mothers and a Baby

This is one of my favorite pictures and I'm posting it here in honor of Mother's Day. These three beautiful women are all looking at me through the window of the hospital nursery. I know I'm a little hard to see but the picture is dated 8-55 so that is my proof! It is actually a 4 generation picture with a twist. On the left is my mother, Vera Dibbens Johnson. Her mother (and my grandma), Frances Rutkowski Dibbens is in the flower print dress on the right. Next to her is her mother-in-law (and my great grandma), Jessie Field Dibbens. It's just like my dad to think to take a picture. (He is the represented by the flash in the window.)

Translating 19th Century Family History for 21st Century People - Tech Tuesday

     Two cousins and I are preparing for our Rutkowski - Warnken family reunion at the end of May. the last few reunions have seen dwindling attendance and the loss the last two sisters of the family, my great aunts, on the Rutkowski side. In the past, they spent the time after lunch and meeting playing something like BINGO or a number draw to win door prizes brought by various family members. It was well liked by the older generations but as the years went by, they noticed fewer young families coming. Regrettably, I was one that didn't always make it. The traditional activities just don't seem to attract people anymore. Hmmm...


     We've been  attempting to "reinvent" the gathering by choosing a more interesting venue (from a shelter at a park to a beautiful nature center) and changing up the activities in hopes that we can attract more from the younger generations. 
 
     So far we will have lunch, pictures in the gardens of the center, a fishing derby for the kids, and a short meeting. As a genealogist, I like to try to promote our family history in an engaging, 21st Century way that might interest others to learn more about our ancestors. Last year I used Photostory 3 to created a slide show of family pictures set to music. Each family went home with a CD of the slide show. Everyone was so excited to get their own copy.

     What should I do this year? We have decided to drop the formal meeting protocol of our parents' generation. (The gavel can stay home this year.) Letters went out but also email. I have beautiful scrapbook paper with a family tree theme for them to write their information on. I have enough pictures for a second slide show.

Any ideas?

Mystery Monday - Don't Believe Everything You Read

Hmmm... This is a picture of the John Johnsons and assorted others in front of their house near McPherson, Kansas. After I scanned the picture, I zoomed in to see it better and noticed a date at the top. Normally, that's a good thing but in this case, it caused a lot of confusion! The date says Dec . 57. I was two years old in 1957 but the boy in the cap and overalls is my Grandpa's youngest brother, Reuben. He died at 100 years-old in 2003. So... could someone have found a negative and had it developed in 1957? The original photo would have been taken around 1912.

Their eyes were my eyes - No Tombstone Tuesday - Part 2

The woman on the left is my 2nd Great Grandmother, Anna Ruth Jarman Dibbens. She was born very close to the place this picture was taken in June of 1843 in Newchurch, Ryde, Isle of Wight, England, and died shortly after this picture was taken in Southsea, England, on December 20, 1919. It's the journey in between those two dates that is the real story.
Anna married Arthur R Dibbens in November, 1865 in the island and they started their family with the first five children; three of whom survived and moved with them to America in 1873 where they added three more children to their family. By 1876 they were living in Wichita, and finally settled near Kingman, Kansas by 1900. They found the land they had been looking for along the banks of the Ninnescah River. The family moved into a sodhouse on that land with six children and survived at least one river rising while in the sod house, but it was worth it as they watched their kit home coming toward them on wagons. It had traveled to them by train from halfway across the country; a mail-order house that is still standing over 100 years later. (I hear there is a picture of the kit being delivered somewhere at a local museum but I have yet to find it.) I began this blog back in 2009 with some pictures and stories about that house, which is still a home. (pictures of the home are in my blogs from 2009.)

Anna and Arthur raised their children in the kit home, making several trips back to England. The last trip to England to visit family was in 1919. The picture above was taken during that trip. Anna died, just across the bit of ocean that separates the island with the mainland, in Southsea and was buried in Highland Road Cemetery in Southsea: Plot M, Row 2, Grave 23. Her stone is no longer there. The acid from the bombings that happened over the area during WWII destroyed many of the stones in that cemetery according to the historian who works there. Her stone may be gone but her legacy lives on and... her eyes are my eyes.

Here is the passport application for their last trip to Isle of Wight and Southsea, England.

Wedding Wednesday: Cute picture

Here is one of my favorite wedding pictures. This is Fred and Blanche (Rutkowski) DeVorss on their wedding day. As you can tell, they had a lot of fun together! I've found several silly pictures of them from when they were young and, most of the time, they looked like they were having a great time! Blanche was one of my grandma's (Frances Rutkowski Dibbens) five sisters.

Treasure Hunting

For almost a year now, I have had two large boxes of old color slides sitting in my living room from my last trip to visit my dad. Along with the slides came a slide viewing table and a slide projector. One of my scanners has a place to put slides but I haven't been very impressed with the quality. The process of searching through these slides amidst my schedule, along with the cumbersome setup required just to view them, let alone save them to my computer, seemed too much. My eyes are not good enough to use the light table anymore, and setting up the projector and then transferring the one or two slides I want out of the tray and into my computer was too complicated! It was definitely like hunting buried treasure!

For Christmas this year, Emily and Dave got me a slide converter that quickly puts the slides on my computer for viewing and saving. All I have to do is put the slides in the tray and slide it into the little machine that is already hooked to my computer. The slide pops up in live view so I can quickly decide if I want it or not. If I don't, I slide to the next one, and if I do, I save it with one click. In the last week, I have had to fight off the urge to sit down and open "just one more" tray of slides many times a day. Here is one of my favorites, so far.

My grandmother, Frances Dibbens, and Vera Johnson, my mother

This picture was taken on the Royal Gorge Bridge near Canon City, Colorado, about 1952. The reason I like it so much is that it seems so natural and lets me imagine them stepping out of the car on a chilly day to walk along the same bridge I have explored a couple of times since. They are wearing everyday clothes that I might not see in a more formal shot. This occurred approximately three years before I was born.

More treasures to come!