As you likely know, I’ve been working on gathering family history and sorts over the last few months or so. It’s been a lot of fun and I’ve really enjoyed putting it all in a Wiki. It’s SO easy to put the information in there and move on rather than having to fill out all sorts of forms and such. And if I’ve got a lot of information I can just drop it on a page and come back and reformat it later.
As part of my search/hunt/work I’ve been in contact with my great-aunt’s brother-in-law, Lloyd Gowan. He’s been a great help piecing together information on my dad’s side of the family, especially since he knew most of the family at some point. His stories about each person are as valuable, if not more valuable than the facts like dates and such. Here’s one story of his about my great-granddad, Fred Scherbarth (who I think looks a lot like my dad & Laurie thinks he looks like Bob – which now that she said it, I can see that too.):
Fred was a kind of a rascal. Marie badgered him, and pushed and shoved to make him a better man but Fred liked to have cronies and he liked the Card Club, a small business at the south end of the main street almost adjacent to the Hay Springs Hotel (owned by Marie’s family (I once stayed there for a week while I was working after I got out of college)). They had pitch and rummy and other card games going on. There was smoking and maybe they even had beer and Fred would go in there and stay much to the great chagrin of Marie, all afternoon when they would go to town on Saturday (farmer’s shopping day then). He was a good husband and a very good farmer and he just enjoyed a little respite from his weeks work so he did what he did. Marie called cigarettes “Pills” and she would always tell anybody with a cigarette to put it down. Of course beer was worse. I laugh when I remember. They had a great little spat but were very dedicated to each other. Love is forever.