Welcome to Uphill Both Ways!
I'm JoLyn, and I want to tell you my family stories.
If you are related to anyone in these stories,
please contact me at jolyn @ upbothways . com.
I'd love to hear from you!
If you have a blog or website, we'll add it to
our "We're Related" list!
It all started with Grandma....
Grandma was a story teller.
She told stories in songs, she told stories in poetry. But most of all she told her family stories - about the people and places and things that make us all who we are.
Many years ago, she decided she needed to put these family stories down on paper. Grandpa spent many hours driving her around their Idaho valley, interviewing family - and people who knew family who had passed on - so that she could learn their stories. She learned everything she could about anything that had to do with their family heritage. She had a wonderful memory and was an excellent historian and record keeper.
On the long cold winter nights, she sat at a little card table with pen and paper - and a Q-tip dipped in hydrogen peroxide to erase any mistakes. She wrote out the stories by hand, and sometimes if the pages weren't perfect, she threw them away and started all over. Eventually she filled a big black Book of Remembrance that was a few inches thick.
On the title page she wrote: “My family, My record books and histories are my ‘Footprints in the Sands of Time’. ” That book is now in the possession of her son, my dad.
Grandma would be amazed by computers. She would be thrilled that - with the touch of a button - we can type a history, erase a mistake, and even share our stories with the world.
This blog is meant to carry on where she left off . . . to continue telling our family stories.
She told stories in songs, she told stories in poetry. But most of all she told her family stories - about the people and places and things that make us all who we are.
Many years ago, she decided she needed to put these family stories down on paper. Grandpa spent many hours driving her around their Idaho valley, interviewing family - and people who knew family who had passed on - so that she could learn their stories. She learned everything she could about anything that had to do with their family heritage. She had a wonderful memory and was an excellent historian and record keeper.
On the long cold winter nights, she sat at a little card table with pen and paper - and a Q-tip dipped in hydrogen peroxide to erase any mistakes. She wrote out the stories by hand, and sometimes if the pages weren't perfect, she threw them away and started all over. Eventually she filled a big black Book of Remembrance that was a few inches thick.
On the title page she wrote: “My family, My record books and histories are my ‘Footprints in the Sands of Time’. ” That book is now in the possession of her son, my dad.
Grandma would be amazed by computers. She would be thrilled that - with the touch of a button - we can type a history, erase a mistake, and even share our stories with the world.
This blog is meant to carry on where she left off . . . to continue telling our family stories.
Appreciation
Many thanks go to my sister, who spent countless hours typing up the stories in the Big Black Book, and many other family stories, so that we all could have a copy. Her work was published as the "Perkins Family History" and the "Gunnell Family History." Because of her, we have all been able to know and appreciate our heritage!
Much thanks also to my Mom, for her project of many years to compile 13 (and counting!) photo scrapbooks documenting our lives and the lives of our ancestors.
She has collected ancestor photos from many sources, and helps us know and love the people we come from. She compiled the histories of her ancestors, which my sister used to create the "Gunnell Family History," and she also wrote the history cookbook, "Gunnell Family Cooking."
Many thanks also go to my mother-in-law, for writing her parents' history and publishing it so that we could all know and love them. She has spent so many hours researching and compiling photos and stories - the result is "Elbert Ray Brown and Zerelda Mae Weaver Brown - A Tribute to their Heritage, Lives and Descendants."
She is an excellent historian and researcher and has also written a book called "The Umfrevilles - A Family History 1030 - 1436 A.D." Not many people can say they've traced their family tree back to the Battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror. Mary's ancestor, Robert cum Barba or Robert with the beard, was there! She has even traveled to England and visited her ancestral home, Prudhoe Castle. We're living among royalty!
Dedication
This blog is dedicated to my Dad, on his birthday. Love you Dad! Happy Birthday!
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