Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Mom's Birthday 2/7/1904

Today is the birthdate of my mother, shown in this photo at a young age - possibly high school graduation?  She entered nurse's training at the age of 17 and graduated in the class of 1923 at Halstead (Kansas) Hospital. This was  during the time that Dr. Arthur Hertzler was there at the hospital he founded.
My memory of the 1930's is that my grandmother had a mangle in her kitchen and she did some laundry for the hospital and ran sheets through that ironing device.
Can that possibly be true? Why wouldn't the hospital have its own laundry?
I'm afraid I'll never know the facts, but that is a memory - possibly faulty.

Do other folks have questions later in life that they wish they had asked of relatives that are now gone? Maybe when we are young we are not interested in family history. Evidently I was not. Not everyone left a diary to discover. Now with video it would be wonderful if we would record some of these memories. I think this is being done with WWII veterans.       Anyway, if you have any questions to ask your relatives about your ancestors, do it now.

Later: This week-end (Feb. 18th) was a free time to use Ancestry.com.  I looked up my grandmother's record in Halstead, Ks and her occupation in 1930 was listed as "Laundress at home."  So she did do work for others! Still not sure if it was for the hospital or individuals.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for leaving a comment this morning. I have questions that I wish I had asked, but now it's too late. Maybe with so many people blogging and journaling...things will be kept in families. I'm interested in your picture of the Tom Thumb wedding...could you put it on your blog sometime?
    Thanks again for reading...Balisha

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