yes they were Last year I finished my family history. Took 38 years.I was at the end of my line of cousins youngest grand kid on fathers side.As a kid I heard my aunts and uncles talkiing about their grand parents and parents. In 1984 Bill Sherman a ccousin showed up from OR. He was at the upper end of the age group. Had been a WW2 pilot. When he got out of acative duty he remained in reserves. He and a friend started a business. They sold it in 1983. each got 20 million. He was on a mission to collect his family history. He had letters from the 1920's to 40's Those really opened things up. I converesed with him and 11 other cousins for over 30 yeras piecing things together. I even got into my wifes family as much as I could. Bill had hired a professional genealogist to search out somethings. We found a cousin in Ireland. Bill went over. He toldf me I had to go. In 2003 my wife and I went. The cousin was sick but lined us up with tthe farrmer who was farming the original farm. Saw graves and got stories. We acctually had a Scotish Prricess marry into tthe family. That had been "family rumor "proved true. One of the ffamily came over late 1790's had a memebr in the War of 1812. The Sherman side came in 1847. A 10 year old boy got sick after leaving Sligo and had to be put off at Liverpool with a cousin. SHe got sick and died. HE was put back on a ship and landed in NY. From there he walked to Louisville KY where he found his aunte, my greatgrand mother. Her nephew joined the civil war before he was old enough and was with Geneal Sherman on his march to the sea.. One of his cousins on the other side was not so lucky he was killed. My mothers side came from Denmark A cousine found a cousin there so we picked up history back into the 1700's and could have had names back to 1400's but no idea what they did. WhenI did the history I wanted to not just have name and dates but the stories and occupations. It is 789 pages with photos, obituaries and letters.
11 copies are in libraies/museums including the library of Congress. We have 12 grand kids they all have a copy it is hard bound with 70lb acid free paper. Also they have a scandisc so they can add their history as they marry and have kids. WIth so much being in texting and email not many letters anymore.
You have the good fortune to have talked with great grandparent. You need to place all you can remember into writing. It is eay with a computer. Then start digging with your cousins. Bill SHerman died before he got anything printed. I spoke with his sone who has no interest in diving into all Bill file cabinets. He has a garage fileld with ffile cabinets. His son said he has a cousin who said he wants to do it when he gets out of the service.
I was in the Army reserves 1963-69. never activated. Began at an engineer battalion in Dubuque, transfer to a field hospital in Cedar Rapids. They had just returned from duty at Berlin.The Enngineer a year latter were activate. The reason I transfered is I got a job selling real estate in Cedar Rapids.
I have a tremmor so occasionly I mistype and spell check misses it
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