24 May 2010

Great Find = Great Idea for Family Historians!

My late grandmother Thelma Gibson (nee. Surpluss) grew up in Rosalia, Kansas.  Her daughter, my aunt has been very supportive of me in both my family history and genealogical quests.  I just received from her one of the greatest finds I could EVER have imagined!  It is a copy of A Pictorial History Of Rosalia, 1869-1935 by Harold J. Borger (unknown publisher, 1972).

"So what" you say?  "What makes that so special" you say?  It is loaded with personal notes in the margins from my late grandmother!  "This is our doctor."  "This church was across the road from the cemetery."  "I went to school with him."  And on and on.  When the book comments on the Kafir Corn Festival, my grandmother wrote, "We always went, it was like a fair."  About one town doctor she wrote, "This is the doctor that moved to Texas and Mexico, and was said to be using goat glands for the men in town to keep them young and productive."  Next to one lady's name she wrote, "Always recited 'The Blue and the Gray' every May 30th."

What a find, and what an idea!!!  I have two county history books from where my Dad grew up.  When he comes to visit this Summer I an going to ask him to make as many personal notes in the margins that he can recall.

Thanks dear aunt for this wonderful contribution you have made to the family history!

Copyright © 2010 by Kevin W. Walker

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