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Pioneer Day

July 26, 2024

Genealogists like to connect with their ancestors in all sorts of ways. Some make the recipes that their great great-grandmothers made. Others enjoy displaying family artifacts such as photos, furniture and quilts. Still others visit the homesteads and houses where their ancestors lived.

 

I’ve been known to do all the above, but I especially like to connect with my ancestors by remembering them on special days. Those special days might be birthdays or Christmas, but my favorite time to reminisce about my ancestors is on Pioneer Day.

 

Pioneer Day is July 24th, and it’s the date that the first Mormon pioneers came to Utah. At least one of my ancestors arrived on that day. Most of the others celebrated the day over the next century. I knew my grandparents well, and I remember what an important day the 24th of July was to them. Pioneer Day is still celebrated in Utah, but it’s not the major holiday it once was.

 

Although the holiday occurred during the busy summer farm season, during my childhood, the family always took time out to go the parade in Ogden. In the afternoon, my grandparents built a bonfire, and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows on sticks over the flames. Ice cold bottles of Barq’s root beer and Nehi orange were a rare treat.

 

The 24th of July was a noisy celebration. Fireworks were illegal in Utah, but many of our neighbors drove to Wyoming to buy rockets and firecrackers. My folks were too law-abiding to do that, but we always had sparklers. Some years we also went into town to watch the fireworks.

 

Multiple rodeos were held around the 24th too, and we often went to watch the cowboys. Sometimes, instead, we went to a drive-in movie that might have fireworks between the first and second features.

 

I loved the 24th of July. It was the highlight of the summer when I was a child. It has been many years since I lived in Utah. July 24th is just another hot, summer day now.

 

Whatever I’m doing on that day, I have a small private celebration by thinking about my pioneer ancestors and remembering their arrival in that hot, dusty valley. I wonder how they felt seeing all that sagebrush and not much else. I think about later generations who celebrated that day.  My life has diverged greatly from theirs, but the 24th of July is a day to remember and honor my ancestors.

 

One of these years I hope to spend another 24th in Utah and go to the parade, just we all did so long ago.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society

 

 

Courthouse Research

July 19, 2024

Like most genealogists, I spend much of my research time in front of a computer. With so many records available at the click of a button, it’s easy to forget that not everything can be accessed from your own desk.

 

For example, local courthouses hold all sorts of important records that have not and may not ever be digitized. A wealth of information can be found in courthouses since they are the repository for local land records, probate records, and vital records such as marriage licenses and certificates. Various court records including both civil and criminal cases, naturalization records, adoption records and more are also found at courthouses.

 

A few years ago, my sister and I visited the county courthouse in Meeker County, Minnesota. Our paternal grandfather and his extended family lived there for a few years after his parents immigrated from Sweden. During their time in Meeker County, these relatives bought land in the area. Various family members married and started families. Some members of the family died, as well. Few of these records were digitized at that time (they still aren’t).

 

My sister and I spent an entire day in the courthouse. We spent most of our time combing through large vital records books that listed marriages, births and death. These books predated the advent of state birth and death certificates which began in 1900 and 1908, respectively. Most of our family was in Meeker County before 1900 so these were the only vital records for them.

 

Most courthouses contain the same types of records, but how the public can access them varies. I’ve been to courthouses where in-person research wasn’t allowed. They required written or emailed research requests. Others have specific rules about how copies can be made. Some allow laptops; some don’t.

 

Meeker County was one of the more restrictive courthouses. They would not allow patrons to make any sort of copy of their books. Cameras, cell phones, and all other types of copy technology were prohibited. They would, however, copy ledger pages on a per line basis. Since we had many marriage, birth and death records to copy, we estimated that it would cost over $600 for the copies we needed. It would also be done as time allowed, so the courthouse staff suggested that we would need to return in several days to pick up any copies we’d ordered.

 

The courthouse did allow us to use paper and pencils to make written transcripts of the ledgers. Since our time in Minnesota was limited, that was what we did. My sister and I spent the day in a corner of the courthouse transcribing dozens of records. One of us found and read out the various records. The other used a pencil and pad to write them down. When we’d finished with the books, we switched places and went through the books again to ensure that we hadn’t missed anything and had written down everything as correctly as possible.

 

When we were finished, we had learned a lot about our Fernelius Family’s time in Minnesota. I still wish we could have copied entire pages of the ledgers, but our approach meant we have records detailing over twenty years of vital statistics for one branch of our family. For some of them these are the only records of their lives that exist.

 

Courthouses can be a treasure trove of information, but they usually require an in-person visit. I’ll never forget the day I spent in the Meeker County Courthouse. Seeing and recording the actual records was worth the hassle. If you get the opportunity, visit a courthouse.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society

 

 

Using Colorized Photos

July 12, 2024

Periodically, I check online family trees for members of my family. Many online trees are available for free at websites such as Family Search, Ancestry and My Heritage. These trees are not static and change frequently. I often find new information and pictures on the various trees. It’s also a good way to find new cousins who are researching my families.

 

The information on these trees always needs to be verified, but they can lead to some surprising breakthroughs on difficult lines. I especially enjoy finding new-to-me family pictures on the trees. Recently, I found photos of a set of great grandparents on Family Search Family Tree. It was the first photos of them I’d ever seen. I’d never realized how closely my mother and several of her sisters resembled their grandmother. I’d heard family stories about my grandfather favoring one of my aunts since she looked like his mother. The photos proved that this story was true, adding a new dimension to my family tree.

 

However, recently, I’ve noticed many of the pictures posted on various family trees are colorized. Most photos taken before the late 1940s were not originally in color. Thanks to technology it is easy to click a button and have these old photos instantly change from black and white to color. Lots of people routinely do it. I have done it myself, and it is a fun way to give photos new life.

 

I have no problem with colorized photos. I do wish that folks wouldn’t post them on family trees without the accompanying black and white original. I know from personal experience that colorized photos are not accurate. It’s difficult to determine what color clothing is in a black and white picture. A light shade could be pale yellow, green, blue, lavender or even white. A darker shade could be black, but it might just as easily be dark blue or green.

 

Hair and eye color are equally impossible to determine from a black and white photo. Paler eyes may be blue, but they might be light brown or hazel. I suspect that computers use statistics to determine eye color. Since more people have brown eyes, brown is probably the default color in colorization programs.

 

Real people don’t necessarily follow these patterns. For example, I come from a family where nearly everyone has blue eyes. The shades vary from deep navy to steel blue. There are also redheads in our family. I have lots of photos of my grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles and even my siblings that were taken when black and white was the norm.

 

I’ve colorized many of them, but I’d never post the colorized versions. I knew many of these family members, and I know which ones had red hair and blue eyes. All the colorized photos I have produced show these family members with brown hair and brown eyes. If I posted the colorized versions of my pictures, I would be misleading anyone who looked at them.

 

Unless you know for sure that a colorized photo is accurate (few are), don’t put them on a family tree. If you must, then make sure to label them as colorized. Otherwise, you’re perpetuating myths about your family. It’s no different than putting an unsourced fact such as a date on a tree. Serious genealogists don’t do it.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society