How did I get here? A blogger, really? And, why Greenwood?
It all began on a porch. My grandparents, now Aunt Sally’s porch. Well, maybe it began long before that. My Grandpa Lounsberry was an avid storyteller. My Grandpa Murray was the Greenwood Historian for many years. My Grandma Murray was a charter member of the Historical Society. Was I destined? Maybe.
I used to think that researching family history was dry, boring work. Just a bunch of names and dates…birth dates, marriage dates, death dates. Not something that I wanted any part of. Then the epiphany….on the porch. What do we do on that porch? What do we do around the dinner table? A campfire? Hanging at a bar with friends and family? We tell stories. As a child I hung on every word in my Grandpa’s stories.
The epiphany for me was how to take my love of stories and combine it with that dry, boring stuff I thought my other grandparents did. A History of Greenwood by Those Who Lived It was born. A first person, everybody joins in, story swap typed up and shared a la a blog.
It sounded like fun. I talk to people, they share their remembrances and stories and those of their ancestors and I turn them into first person accounts as if they were sitting right there on the porch, around the campfire, or hanging at the bar with you swapping stories.
I began with those closest to me. I got the stories of those very grandparents that inspired me and shared them. A few families stepped forward, and I shared theirs. Then the pandemic. Interest waned. So, I focused on another history project.
For about two hours every week, I combed the Steuben County records and documented all the lots in the Greenwood School district. I got my Uncle Stan to write down everything he remembered. Then I met on Zoom for about another hour and a half every Thursday for months and months with my dad and went lot by lot and documented every business he remembers in all the buildings and lots in Greenwood and all the people that owned and/or lived in the homes as well. This ended up being even more fun for me. You see, Dad shared more and more stories as we plodded along through town. We even took a drive together over all the back roads as he pointed out all the farms and told of all the farmers. I have walked the streets physically, and in my mind, and been told of all the home and business owners.
Now I know why my aunts, uncles, grandparents, and parents referred to houses by the names of people who no longer live there. You see, I say that first house after the museum, I mean the Young and Young store, is Dr Hardenberg’s office, and Blanche Wallace’s house where the telephone switchboard sat tucked in the living room corner will always be Blanche’s house to me. The Lipperts will always live next door to my cousin Dawn’s family.
Another crazy trick I use when going through census data at Ancestry.com and the maps of Steuben County; I picture myself as a census taker, riding down those roads on horseback or wagon and stopping at each of those farms or homes. That drive and those walks sure did and do help with my visualization.
And now, I am focused on the Greenwood Museum and its treasures. My plan, to tie all of this together. An artifact in the Museum is tied to a lot in Greenwood which is tied to one or more families which links to pictures and finally stories.
You knew I would get back to the stories, yes? I NEED MORE STORIES!!! Let’s schedule a time to talk. Email me at kmrhistoryblog@gmail.com.