Day #63: Today Wasn't Exciting, so Let's Talk Family History
Yep. I know. My family history is exciting only to me, not even to most of the other members of my family a lot of the time. I get it.
But one thing that I have been really wanting to do is more writing...I'm just not sure *what.* I think I want to do a novel, but do I want to do one about this current situation? Or tackle the Spanish flu and do historical fiction? Or meld the two together? Or just scrap the whole thing and write a middle grade fantasy? Not sure. But I know as a writer one of the things I have to do to get beyond this stuck place is to start to get some of the various things swirling around in my head out and since I have this space and am gonna write in it anyway, I'm gonna do a little of that here. I hope you'll indulge me. Or feel free to skip ahead.
I've been wondering for while if I should do some kind of novelization about my family's experiences in 1918 and beyond and so in my few spare minutes now that I have an actual office to work in (which I'm not in right now...it's boys game night on Zoom and one thin door between my office space and his is not enough) I've been drilling down into that side of the family trying to do as much research as I can. And I found probate records about my great grandmother's estate.
She, if you've followed this blog at all you know, died in the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918. This I've known basically all my life, but there are interesting things you learn when you read probate records, although you have to get through some very boring stuff as well. We will try to skip that as much as we can.
My great grandparents got married in 1907 and had four children. At the time of their mother's death, the girls were 9, 7, and 4 and the boy was almost 2. This much I knew. But what I didn't know is that they had just moved to Great Falls from the country and into a brand new house...that was owned by her. They had lived in Great Falls before, but were living and farming in the country for at least 4 years before returning to move into their new house. Was it rare for her, a married woman, to own a new house in her name in 1918? I can't say for sure, but it stuck out to me.
The house is still there. Zillow lists it as a 2 bedroom, 1 bath 1300 square foot house built in 1918. I'm guessing at that time it was 3 bedrooms and one of the bedrooms was converted later...this was common at the time and given how many people lived in this house I'm hoping they had more than two bedrooms. It looks cute even today. I'd love to see it.
Both sets of grandparents lived in Great Falls. My great-grandfather spent most of his childhood in other places but both families were fairly well rooted in Great Falls.
I always felt like I had heard that at the time of the flu they were living with her parents, but that's not what the records say. Her parents, at least up until a few months before the flu, lived nearby. They eventually moved in, but I'm not sure if it was before or after their daughter died. I also wonder if they sold their own house to buy hers.
She owned it outright. And his name wasn't on it, which is why he had to spend 5+ years going through probate on it. To my knowledge, she never worked and didn't have higher education so the only way I can think of that she could have bought a house was if her parents or grandparents purchased one for her or gave her the money. Nobody was loaded, but her mother's family had some money and her father didn't come from money but was an architect (he and his partner actually designed the street layout of Great Falls, which I thought was something my dad made up, but nope, it's in his obituary that he did,) and made some. Her husband's parents also had some money but it seems super unlikely that the money came from them if the house was in her name.
The story I was always told was that there were eight of them living there at the time: my great grandparents, her parents, and the four children. Seven of them got sick, leaving Grandpa as the sole healthy person to take care of everyone. Everyone recovered except for my great grandmother but at least a couple of the children were also quite sick.
What the records are clear about is that after she died her parents lived in the house with their son-in-law and the children. He appears to have dealt with unemployment and so in 1922 he moved the children in with his mother, who also lived close by, and moved out of state. I guess he may have moved out of state sooner but that's when the children went to his mother's. The probate records make it clear that he didn't return to Montana to live until after the probate was wrapped up in 1924. I'm not sure that he ever did. By 1924 he was married again and in 1925 his fifth child was born. I believe he and his second wife spent the rest of their lives in Oregon.
The story my dad always heard from his grandmother was that the children's father abandoned them. The story that I heard from my great aunt is that they hated when they were forced to live with his mother, who was mean to them and reportedly chased after their younger brother (who would have been four or five at the time) with a whale bone corset. I didn't realize they stayed with that side of the family for 2 years, but according to probate records they did, at least that long. Some time after 1924, they moved back in with their other grandparents, who they always credited with raising them. I'm not sure if their oldest sister did, she would have gone to normal school and into teaching about that time and reportedly didn't like being told who she was going to live with.
So my great great grandmother had no love lost for her son in law...why? Did he throw them out of the house they were living in when he rented it and sent the children to his mother's and moved to Oregon? Or had they moved out by then? The records aren't clear. Like I said, they weren't millionaires but they did fine, eventually bought the house my dad remembers them living in. It's still there as well, built in 1910, 1600 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. They lived in it until close to my great great grandfather's death in 1961. My great great grandmother's mother died in 1921, maybe they got some money then that helped them move out of their son-in-law's house? No idea.
The probate records say only that in 1924 the estate was settled, with the entire contents of the estate being the house. Ownership was divided, with 2/3 going to the kids and 1/3 to their dad. Presumably after the estate was settled the house, which was rented out at that time, was sold. My great great grandparents' names appear nowhere in the probate records. It doesn't look like they challenged the decisions at all. But you have to wonder why it took 5 years to settle everything.
As facts, they are interesting to me but probably no one else. As a novel, would they be? I don't know. I LOVE historical fiction but feel very intimidated writing it. And as someone researching genealogy to start to take that and twist it up into fiction feels very disingenuous.
But one thing I have learned from these times is I want to write more. I want to tell more stories. It has been a joy and a delight to be back into blogging. I hope someone out there is enjoying reading all this, but writing it is the real joy. I sit in my office and lament the lack of time I have to really be down there right now and doing the work I want to do...but you have to prioritize the things that are important. Even when your kids are little and you are tired. Life is short. If we learn nothing else from this may we please god learn that life is really really effing short.
Pandemic media consumption: a bit more Dick van Dyke show. TV in the morning helps. Mornings are...so...early, and despite my best efforts being in bed before midnight is hard...I like seeing my husband and having time for me and so bedtime keeps getting pushed. I still am watching that Mrs. America show, I watched an episode last night and may try to squeeze in one more when I am done here. I am finding it really interesting and it makes me want to read more about the 1970s. There was a kids historical fiction book on that time period I almost ordered today and was kinda bummed when I learned it doesn't release until August. By that time my interest may wane. Not much reading today except finishing Anne of Avonlea on audio but I got some new books in the mail so am way ready to dive into those.
Today I am grateful for new books, good weather, good friends, a pretty good day, that I'm not James's real teacher, that I can close facebook, a pretty yard, health and safety, and snuggles.
But one thing that I have been really wanting to do is more writing...I'm just not sure *what.* I think I want to do a novel, but do I want to do one about this current situation? Or tackle the Spanish flu and do historical fiction? Or meld the two together? Or just scrap the whole thing and write a middle grade fantasy? Not sure. But I know as a writer one of the things I have to do to get beyond this stuck place is to start to get some of the various things swirling around in my head out and since I have this space and am gonna write in it anyway, I'm gonna do a little of that here. I hope you'll indulge me. Or feel free to skip ahead.
I've been wondering for while if I should do some kind of novelization about my family's experiences in 1918 and beyond and so in my few spare minutes now that I have an actual office to work in (which I'm not in right now...it's boys game night on Zoom and one thin door between my office space and his is not enough) I've been drilling down into that side of the family trying to do as much research as I can. And I found probate records about my great grandmother's estate.
She, if you've followed this blog at all you know, died in the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918. This I've known basically all my life, but there are interesting things you learn when you read probate records, although you have to get through some very boring stuff as well. We will try to skip that as much as we can.
My great grandparents got married in 1907 and had four children. At the time of their mother's death, the girls were 9, 7, and 4 and the boy was almost 2. This much I knew. But what I didn't know is that they had just moved to Great Falls from the country and into a brand new house...that was owned by her. They had lived in Great Falls before, but were living and farming in the country for at least 4 years before returning to move into their new house. Was it rare for her, a married woman, to own a new house in her name in 1918? I can't say for sure, but it stuck out to me.
The house is still there. Zillow lists it as a 2 bedroom, 1 bath 1300 square foot house built in 1918. I'm guessing at that time it was 3 bedrooms and one of the bedrooms was converted later...this was common at the time and given how many people lived in this house I'm hoping they had more than two bedrooms. It looks cute even today. I'd love to see it.
Both sets of grandparents lived in Great Falls. My great-grandfather spent most of his childhood in other places but both families were fairly well rooted in Great Falls.
I always felt like I had heard that at the time of the flu they were living with her parents, but that's not what the records say. Her parents, at least up until a few months before the flu, lived nearby. They eventually moved in, but I'm not sure if it was before or after their daughter died. I also wonder if they sold their own house to buy hers.
She owned it outright. And his name wasn't on it, which is why he had to spend 5+ years going through probate on it. To my knowledge, she never worked and didn't have higher education so the only way I can think of that she could have bought a house was if her parents or grandparents purchased one for her or gave her the money. Nobody was loaded, but her mother's family had some money and her father didn't come from money but was an architect (he and his partner actually designed the street layout of Great Falls, which I thought was something my dad made up, but nope, it's in his obituary that he did,) and made some. Her husband's parents also had some money but it seems super unlikely that the money came from them if the house was in her name.
The story I was always told was that there were eight of them living there at the time: my great grandparents, her parents, and the four children. Seven of them got sick, leaving Grandpa as the sole healthy person to take care of everyone. Everyone recovered except for my great grandmother but at least a couple of the children were also quite sick.
What the records are clear about is that after she died her parents lived in the house with their son-in-law and the children. He appears to have dealt with unemployment and so in 1922 he moved the children in with his mother, who also lived close by, and moved out of state. I guess he may have moved out of state sooner but that's when the children went to his mother's. The probate records make it clear that he didn't return to Montana to live until after the probate was wrapped up in 1924. I'm not sure that he ever did. By 1924 he was married again and in 1925 his fifth child was born. I believe he and his second wife spent the rest of their lives in Oregon.
The story my dad always heard from his grandmother was that the children's father abandoned them. The story that I heard from my great aunt is that they hated when they were forced to live with his mother, who was mean to them and reportedly chased after their younger brother (who would have been four or five at the time) with a whale bone corset. I didn't realize they stayed with that side of the family for 2 years, but according to probate records they did, at least that long. Some time after 1924, they moved back in with their other grandparents, who they always credited with raising them. I'm not sure if their oldest sister did, she would have gone to normal school and into teaching about that time and reportedly didn't like being told who she was going to live with.
So my great great grandmother had no love lost for her son in law...why? Did he throw them out of the house they were living in when he rented it and sent the children to his mother's and moved to Oregon? Or had they moved out by then? The records aren't clear. Like I said, they weren't millionaires but they did fine, eventually bought the house my dad remembers them living in. It's still there as well, built in 1910, 1600 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. They lived in it until close to my great great grandfather's death in 1961. My great great grandmother's mother died in 1921, maybe they got some money then that helped them move out of their son-in-law's house? No idea.
The probate records say only that in 1924 the estate was settled, with the entire contents of the estate being the house. Ownership was divided, with 2/3 going to the kids and 1/3 to their dad. Presumably after the estate was settled the house, which was rented out at that time, was sold. My great great grandparents' names appear nowhere in the probate records. It doesn't look like they challenged the decisions at all. But you have to wonder why it took 5 years to settle everything.
As facts, they are interesting to me but probably no one else. As a novel, would they be? I don't know. I LOVE historical fiction but feel very intimidated writing it. And as someone researching genealogy to start to take that and twist it up into fiction feels very disingenuous.
But one thing I have learned from these times is I want to write more. I want to tell more stories. It has been a joy and a delight to be back into blogging. I hope someone out there is enjoying reading all this, but writing it is the real joy. I sit in my office and lament the lack of time I have to really be down there right now and doing the work I want to do...but you have to prioritize the things that are important. Even when your kids are little and you are tired. Life is short. If we learn nothing else from this may we please god learn that life is really really effing short.
Pandemic media consumption: a bit more Dick van Dyke show. TV in the morning helps. Mornings are...so...early, and despite my best efforts being in bed before midnight is hard...I like seeing my husband and having time for me and so bedtime keeps getting pushed. I still am watching that Mrs. America show, I watched an episode last night and may try to squeeze in one more when I am done here. I am finding it really interesting and it makes me want to read more about the 1970s. There was a kids historical fiction book on that time period I almost ordered today and was kinda bummed when I learned it doesn't release until August. By that time my interest may wane. Not much reading today except finishing Anne of Avonlea on audio but I got some new books in the mail so am way ready to dive into those.
Today I am grateful for new books, good weather, good friends, a pretty good day, that I'm not James's real teacher, that I can close facebook, a pretty yard, health and safety, and snuggles.
Comments
Post a Comment