Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:
It’s Saturday Night again—
time for some more Genealogy Fun!!
Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):
- Were you lucky enough to receive or discover artifacts from your ancestors (parents, grandparents, or more distant relatives) as you pursued your genealogy research?
- Describe one or more of the artifacts you found or received and where you obtained them.
I consider myself extremely fortunate when it comes to family artifacts and heirlooms. Both of my grandmothers preserved a variety of family treasures, including photographs, documents, letters, and family Bibles. In fact, it was my grandmother Crawford who first sparked my interest in genealogy and taught me how to use local research resources, including microfilmed newspapers.
While the family Bibles are among my most treasured possessions, one item stands out as an especially fortunate discovery: my great-grandmother Josie Winifred Hammond’s poetry journal.
The journal contains dozens of poems that offer glimpses into both family life and the experiences of prairie settlers. Some poems tell stories about family members, while others capture the challenges, joys, and everyday realities of life on the Kansas prairie. Recognizing their historical value, I transcribed the collection and submitted it to the Kansas Memory Project under the title Josie’s Ledger.
One of my favorite poems from the collection is “Little Sod Shanty.” The poem reflects the affection and appreciation pioneer families often felt for the humble homes that sheltered them through the hardships of frontier life.
As an experiment, I used Suno to transform Josie’s poem into a song. Hearing words written by my great-grandmother more than a century ago come alive through music was a unique experience—one that helped me connect with her in a new way.
Below is a video created from that song.