Talking To Relatives

Submitted by HOST GFS Susi@aol.com

Talking to your relatives, is a very key item to do for research.

It is also fun and very enjoyable. The best thing that came from my Uncle being so ill was the time we shared together. He shared many, many stories that on a normal visit would never have been shared.

My Uncle was a WW 11 survivor, and a Pearl Harbor Survivor too. He was the last of the old cowboys. He, I learned was an artist with work in the National Geographic Magazine and a picture that hangs somewhere in the galley in the Wyoming State Capitol.

To me, he was my Dad's only brother and father of two great cousins. My Dad and he tried to visit often and shared as much time as distance and family would allow. They always talked of family but not so direct as that one on one time gave us to share.

I was able to learn pertinent details of various family events, such as births, deaths, accidents, divorce, parties (that made news ), and many more events that I was able to use to help find some of his family.

His Uncle had a country western band, that data helped me to find the Uncle's family. I have, since we started sharing time together found his Aunt's family, not where expected either but in Florida where they used to vacation. They liked it so much they moved there in the thirty's and that is why they no longer could be found in Iowa and Minnesota. I was able to find a living cousin in Sacramento, Ca that came to visit at my Mom's in Northern California and to come visit his cousin here in San

Diego. This cousin was my grandfather's closest brother's son. We had heard of the fun that Granddad and his brother Monty had but had no idea where they were but in Northern California some where near where I grew up. Dad and I searched for years for them, to many Joneses. We knew they moved here to California in the 1930s.

I was able with his stories and a trip by myself years earlier, to put together enough data to find another one of his cousins in Arizona, whom came to visit him several times before he passed on.

I cannot tell anyone how much the time I spent with him meant to me and our family. I am working with a cousin on a book about him that we started before his death. It will probably take a year or more to compile all the data. We are a bit blessed because he had written some of his life events in a notebook and went over them with me before he passed on.

Do not hesitate to talk to relatives, and friends of relatives and neighbors if you can. If not talk write to them. There are very few that will not open up and share data if approached right. Alas, there are a few of those.

You have not heard the last of my Uncle. I have lots of great stories to share. His name was Gerald Oliver Jones born in Slater Flats, Wyoming, 1917 of parents that were born in Iowa. He was a retired Naval Chief and retired Laguna Observatory worker. He helped develop some of the working components to make the telescope work more accurately. He was highly respected in the science field for his work.

He passed on to His Maker Sunday, March 10th, 2001.

SusiCP

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