Unusual Sources One Seems to Forget

Unusual Sources One Seems to Forget

Again today, I opened an email to again see someone sharing my dark secrets in Genealogy.
Several years back, more than 20 a Farm Bureau in my home region did a Cook book, as I did my talks locally around the region, I mentioned the old Grange Cook Books, Farm Bureau books and other community, church cook books for references to family and distant kin.

In 1993, I grabbed the Cookbook done by downline ancestral potential kin in Pennsylvania.  Did I have results you bet I did.  So in 2001 when my daughters neighbor had a spare family book for sale I grabbed it.  Yes, there was family in it distantly.  But there were also some great recipes from a time when people actually cooked meals and planned community and family events.

It seems we city people have forgotten a lot of that.  A small community of 24,000 still does this type of thing. The smaller communities even more, for they hold each other up and care for each others needs more than large city communities where many do not even know their next door neighbor's name let alone anything more.

Today NGS, brought about the Telephone books or old Address books that of course I still use. I kept all of my Mom's, as she discarded them to me. Why, my goodness my deceased ancestors were listed in there and Mom generally would put the death date near the address.  My Aunt had her Mom's and we am not sure who received it, but again it applied to people from PA, IA and other  midwest regions the family had migrated to.  I read it long ago as a young person.  We had family Grandmother kept track of in many states, of course states we was not aware of yet.

Having my old address books, except what the government lost on that shipment to HI. we were able to have information to put in our research papers.   By loosing that book we lost touch with the people who introduced my husband to me and other family type members we thought of as family.  Fortunately, Mom's family has a desire to work the family history back in time.

Now, what about BabyBooks, I am not sure when they became popular but Mom had one for each of us that the Hospital gave her. It was only about 6 pages for mine. Having 5 living children, we put together a book for each child for their future.  Find that Baby Book and do not throw it out with the bath water. Our children's book were far more elaborate and filled, if you filled them out with much more information than the free ones from the hospitals in the 1940's etc.

We found in Grandma H's Recipe books she had hand written all kinds of information on the family. Who cooked or baked what, what each person was known the best for.  My Grandmother's Cinnamon Rolls recipe was guarded for many years but shared before she passed.  I have the copy Mom made for my family in my Recipe box.

Grandad J was a cook at one time and I have a couple of articles he shared with me orally. I wrote them down because I did not see him often enough to be able to remember it like he did.

There are more not talked about sources I will share with you in the near future.

Button, Button who has the Button.