**Note from Gena: In my last blog post, I introduced you to the book Dear Mother, Love Daddy by genealogist and blogger Deborah Sweeney. In this interview we learn a little more about her book and how Deborah is preserving her family history.
 |
| Yegerlehner family. Used with permission of Deborah Sweeney |
Deborah: I always like to point out that Roscoe and Gladys,
in the big scheme of things, were nobodies. They were not famous or infamous.
However, to me, they are very important because they were my paternal
grandparents. They lived the lives typical of middle class Americans of the 20th
century, living through both world wars, the great Depression, the Cold War,
the Civil Rights Era, and so on. Roscoe was the grandson of Swiss and German
immigrants who arrived in the United States in the 1850s. They worked hard,
purchased land in western Indiana, and were successful. They had many
descendants who spread throughout the United States, some of which have been
noteworthy. Roscoe’s closest brush with fame was his uncle Silvester Schiele,
who was one of the four founders of the Rotary movement in the early 1900s in
Chicago. As a result, Roscoe was a life-long Rotary member. Gladys’ ancestry
paints a tapestry of American history from pacifist Quakers, Revolutionary War
soldiers, slave-owning Virginians, and Irish immigrants. While Roscoe’s family
was more well-to-do, Gladys’ family life was more turbulent. Her parents had a
rocky marriage, and her mother was left to raise the children alone in the
1910s and 1920s in Terre Haute, Indiana. Gladys was a survivor who knew the
value of hard work and making the best out of less than ideal circumstances.
By the opening of World War II, Roscoe and Gladys
had been married ten years. Roscoe had been a school teacher and principal but
during the Depression switched gears to study medicine and become a doctor.
Before they married, Gladys had taken business courses to become a
stenographer. To support the family while Roscoe attended medical school,
Gladys took coursework at a beauty college. She ran a hair cutting business
during the mid 1930s. After Roscoe finished medical school and his internship,
they settled in the small northern Indiana town of Kentland and Roscoe set up a
private practice. Within the month following the attack of Pearl Harbor, Roscoe
volunteered for the Navy and was granted a commission as a Lt. (jg). Like many
other Americans of the time, Roscoe and Gladys felt compelled to do their duty for
the war effort and did not want to be accused of shirking their
responsibilities.
After the war, Roscoe came home and resumed his
practice. He became a fixture in the town of Kentland for almost 25 years. When
he retired in 1967, the town and his colleagues honored him with several going
away parties. There are many people alive who still remember Dr. Yeg, or were
one of the babies he delivered. I occasionally receive messages from people who
tell me tales of experiences they had with the good doctor.
 |
| Roscoe. Used with permission of Deborah Sweeney |
Gena: You
started blogging about these letters a few years prior to publishing them in
book form. What made you originally decide to share them with your readers?
Deborah: My original focus with the letters was to find a
way to share them with family members, especially my dad. He had been the
caretaker of the letters for several decades before me, but he had never
actually read them. The letters cover a critical part of his childhood, in much
more vivid detail then he could have ever imagined. Any historian or genealogist
will tell you that finding letters like this is a wonderful treasure. One of
the best parts of the experience is finding long lost relatives. My great-grandmother, Roscoe’s mother, had an older half sister. Through the letters, I
am now in contact with a whole branch of the family because their ancestor was
mentioned periodically in the letters. Through this connection, pretty much the
entire branch has done DNA testing in conjunction with my research. It was been
amazing!
Since my blog was very new in late 2012,
transcribing and posting the letters also gave me a way to establish a daily
routine. I have written about many different things on my blog in the last
three years, but the letters are a constant. If you have ever looked at a pile
of 1,000+ letters, it is very overwhelming! You also don’t know where some
important genealogical clue might be buried. Blogging the letters has provided
me with focus. I don’t think I would have gotten this far on the project
without the blog keeping me on schedule.
Gena: Have you
had any surprises or a-ha moments as you read the letters?
Deborah: Almost every single day! Some more so than others.
One of the most current a-ha moments happened in the fall of 1943. My
grandfather arranged to have a couple of his buddies send flowers to my
grandmother for her birthday (Nov. 1). These buddies were on their way back to
the states. Roscoe never really mentioned their names and I always like to
identify everyone if I possibly can. Finally, buddy #1 was named as Lt. Palmer.
It still wasn’t enough information for me go on, but then I came across another
clue in some of Roscoe’s Navy paperwork. I was able to figure out who Lt.
Palmer was, and I am hoping to make contact eventually with some of his
descendants. Because who wouldn’t want to know that their ancestor did this
really cool thing for another officer’s wife? I just discovered who buddy #2
was. He had been a former tent mate of Roscoe’s in the Russell Islands. This
particular gentleman belongs to one of the founding families of Reno, Nevada.
It just amazes me how all these men from all over the country from different
walks of life were thrown together, men who normally would have had nothing in
common. Some of the relationships survived the war, while others didn’t.
Gena: What
tips would you provide to others who have family letters?
Deborah: I would recommend opening up those letters and
learning how to preserve them properly. Read them and share them! Come up with
a plan for passing them on. I don’t know if my children will necessarily be interested
in keeping them. People are constantly telling me how there used to be letters
or diaries in the family, but after the caretaker died whoever cleaned out
their house just threw them away. Disasters happen, too. Things beyond human
control, like fires or tornadoes. While I haven’t made definite plans yet for
these letters, I hope to donate them to an institution or library in Indiana someday.
But I want to preserve and organize them first, and find all the buried
treasure within them.
Gena: Thanks so much for sharing your book and family history with us!
