"Writer suggests five ways of presenting family, local heritage" from the September 18, 1979 Door County Advocate
By JOHN ENIGL
Writer suggests five ways of presenting family, local heritage
By JOHN ENIGL
PART II
In part one of this article, a case was made for the importance of the study of history. Suggestions were given for the use of the cassette recorder in preserving oral family history. Certainly the voices of our public figures to today can be preserved in the same way. Recordings could be made of the coverage of such events by our local radio station, WDOR.
With the advent of home sound-on-film movies and video tape recorders, the vistas of preservation of local and family history are even greater.
My uncle, Charles Mueller, who was a structural engineer in Chicago for many years, had a movie camera in the 1930's and photographed our family and scenes from Door county back in those days. How enjoyable it would be to see those films again! My cousin and I have talked about having the film copied but we never seem to get started on the job. Sometimes home movies can even be of interest to the local historical society or Chamber of Commerce.
Another historical avocation is that of geneological research.
Although my brother and I had gone to Austria to check on the family history in 1973, I didn't really know much about geneological research at the time. Then I read a short account about the local chapter of the Wisconsin State Geneological Society in the Advocate.
I called the state president, who lived in Milwaukee, and she offered to loan me some books on the subject. I also wrote to the headquarters in Madison.
I found that one of the services of the WSGS is to offer "Pioneer Family" or "Century Family" certificates to qualified Wisconsin families. A Pioneer Family is one that has an ancestor that settled in Wisconsin by 1850. A Century Family is one that has an ancestor who settled in Wisconsin 100 or more years ago. Certain data and proof are required, such as a pedigree, which lists the lineage from the settler down to the applicant.
The Society also promotes ethnic groups, such as the Belgian-American Society, a group that is very active in. Door County. Our people of Belgian and Norwegian ancestry have done a good job of investigating and preserving their heritage, but the field is wide open for research on the part of the other nationalities represented in our county.
Brother Charles and I found that our Austrian relatives were forced to compile the family geneology when Hitler was in power. Adolf wanted to be sure none of them had any "Jewish blood." (I was disappointed when the relatives said we had no Jewish forbears.) Luckily for them, 99 percent of them were Catholic and the rest were agnostics. They were safe — until the Russians came.
A good time to get information for family geneologies; as suggested by Alex Haley in the talk I heard him give, is at family reunions. There, the memories of the oldest relatives are jogged by the sight of long forgotten faces. If one has a tape recorder handy, work can be done on the family tree, as well as work on oral family history. Even after funerals, this could be done, if relatives feel it is appropriate and in good taste. (We've started a tradition of having a family member write a story of the deceased's life and reading it at the funeral or memorial service. Copies are given to relatives later.)
The library in Sturgeon Bay has a large number of handouts; relating to geneology, and information about the people involved in geneological work locally. The materials are to be found in the historical research room to the rear of the main desk.
Another historical enterprise any family could and should involve itself is in the identification of the people in the pictures in the family albums.
I'm afraid that too often we take pictures, put them in an album, and fail to mark the pictures to tell who the people in the picture are. Now the pictures meant a lot to the person who took them, but what about when that person is gone? Most likely, the pictures are discarded.
A good example of a picture without identification is this one. John Enigl said he has a whole album with pictures of the lady on the left but nobody in his family knows who she is.
Or, as I saw recently, framed pictures are put up for sale at an auction and people buy them for the frames. As I looked at the items laid for sale at West Jacksonport auction I noticed a beautiful round framed family picture. Inquiring around, I found someone who identified the group in the picture as the Braunsdorf family of Clay Banks, for whom Braunsdorf Beach was named.
I didn't know who bought the picture at the time but later learned who it was, a member of the Door County Historical Society who I was glad to learn is going to donate it to the society.
This family portrait of the Braunsdorf family of Clay Banks was sold at the Emil Kuehn auction. Don Juleen holds the picture. Writer John Enigl notes in the accompanying article how many such family heirlooms are bought at auctions for the frames.
In the case of our own family, we've waited too long to identify some of the album pictures — waited until the people who could do the job were gone. I have a whole album of pictures I can't identify. I suspect a lady in a Green Bay nursing home is the only one left who might confirm a guess I have as to who the people are. Here again, are pictures that mean nothing to me, but that would tug at the heartstrings of those who know the people.
The importance of duplicating family pictures cannot be over-emphasized. What if there were a fire; and only one copy of each picture was in existence? This happened to Goldie Krueger Landis. our 1939 Cherry Blossom Queen. When her parents' home burned in the early 1950's, she lost all the pictures that were taken when she was queen. Fortunately, when the Advocate ran the story on the 40th anniversary of her coronation, negatives of pictures taken by the late Wilmer Schroeder were found, so the pictures could be reproduced.
. A little checking with friends, relatives and neighbors may produce family pictures, in case of such a loss by fire. Mrs. Mildred Brungraber gave me a picture of my mother's family just a few years ago — a picture 60 or 65 years old —saved from a fire. It's surprising how many family pictures are distributed to neighbors, and how many neighbors take pictures of each other.
But the best insurance against loss of family pictures, and thus of family history, is to copy them and distribute them to relatives. Sharing, again, makes more sense than hoarding.
Another way to get involved with preserving our heritage is to encourage old settlers to write short articles about Door county for the paper. I enjoyed so much the articles about Jacksonport of long ago by Frank Halstead.
Older people may be reluctant to write. They fear criticism because of poor grammar or spelling. Personally, I prefer to read a story that "tells it as it is," or is written the way a person speaks. That kind of writing makes the writer come alive in print. I know, too, that the editors make a great effort to decipher even a poorly written "Letter to the Editor" or story, in order that its feeling and thought may be passed on in print.
Here, a person interested in historical research can offer to help the older person write the article — but you should not try to change the essential style of writing. The article should be turned in under its author's name. He'll be proud to see his name in print, and chances are quite good it will be printed.
One technique an older friend and I use, is for me to group some of the pictures he took in the 'teens and 'twenties according to subject. Then he writes what each picture is about Often, I quote directly what he has written, because he has a most captivating style of writing.
I, for one, would be very interested in what Bob Seiler — or what some of our public servants of the past — would write, people such as Judge Stapleton, Bailie Howe or Alex Meunier. We're fortunate that such retirees as Ray Christianson. John Kahlert and Stanley Greene have put some of their ideas in print. The ideas of many others, people who have lived through the times the young and new residents don't know about, could be shared by the oldsters writing short articles.
Then, finally, I feel we should be helping to preserve some of the collections that relate to our Door County heritage.
A lot of times a collection starts as a hobby. Someone has an interest in old cars, old dolls, or antique radios. The person gets involved in the history of the items collected. He doesn't intend to make money with the hobby. It's a labor of love.
"Yet the fact that the items he collects are related to the history of the area makes it unfortunate if the collection is not shared with the public. Sometimes it is a case of someone collecting a lot of items that relate to Door County history, that, instead ending up in one of our county museums, are sold at public auctions and dispersed to the winds.
Now, there is only so much room at the Door County Museum or the Maritime Marine Museums. Privately owned museums such we presently have, such as The Farm and the Roy Oshkosh Museum can only hold so much. I believe we need to encourage other private museum collections that are open to the public for a fee. Give our local people and tourists some more places to see, places of historical interest, places of educational interest. This won't hurt our present business interests, dining places, motels and so on. But sometimes we run into zoning restrictions.
Zoning is fine — it dictates that the building style be in keeping with the sylvan nature of our county, and prevents traffic hazards and pollution. However, I really can't understand the rationale, for example, in objecting to a private museum being put up, as I've heard that happened a few years ago. Maybe there wasn't a direct relationship of the subject to Door County. But the person who wanted to put up the museum is one of those talented people our locality has produced, one who would bring her own Door County flavor to the venture. I'm reminded of how my old friend, Jens Jacobsen, led his Door County flavor to his little museum on Washington Island. I never tired of going in there, and I must have been in there 50 times. People make a museum live.
Algoma, in its effort to attract some of the tourist trade that yearly passed it by on the way to Door county, didn't hesitate too long before it permitted Mrs. Gray's doll museum to be built. That, and a marine. museum and nice supper club created an area that has brought a lot of pleasure to a lot of people, and it didn't even disturb the traffic pattern.
I wrote before about the sadness I felt when the Ray and Harold Wolf gas and steam engine collection left the county. We have other collections that with a little encouragement could be opened to the public. Take, for example; Lee Krueger's collection of old tractors and cars. Lee doesn't have the time to take off and explain the history of these machines, some of which were the first machines to break up our Door county sod.
Perhaps people like Lee could be encouraged to open up their collections to the public when they retire. This would bring pleasure and edification to local people and visitors alike. In addition, the talents of local people could be used to tell about the museums. Look how perfectly Otis Trodahl and Ray Christianson are cast in that role.
I've suggested five ways of involving ourselves in preserving our, heritage: recording oral history; doing a family geneology; identifying the people in your family album; getting old settlers to write their recollections; and opening up collections to the public.
I hope I've encouraged someone to engage in, or at least support, some of these activities.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive