Lois Katherine Field

My maternal grandmother was Lois Katherine Field. Since she lived until I was in my 30's, I heard a lot of oral history from her. Oral history can be a great held in doing family history research, but comes with a warning: just because someone says something is true, does not mean it is. Memories fade or become confused; the person may be reporting someone else's memory ("My daddy always said...") and may not be borne out in a review of historical records.

Lois Katherine Field was born on October 27, 1901 in Modale, Iowa, the fourth of eight children. Her father, Herschel Weston Field, died in 1907, leaving her mother, Minnie May Olmstead, to raise five children alone.

A note about photos: in the late 1800's and into the 1900's, many people had professional photos taken for marriages. A lot of these photos are still hanging around. If you have any, please scan them and attach them to your ancestors in FamilySearch so that everyone can enjoy these pieces of history!

Let's see what we can find about Lois from the census. We first find her listed in the 1910 census:

By this point, Minnie is widowed. She has given birth to 8 children, only 5 of whom are living. She works at home as a washerwoman. Her children are all in school, something that was important in their family. All of the children graduated from high school.

Things were not looking so good in 1920. Minnie was dead by now, and four of the children were living in the same house in Modale (Otis is listed on the next page of the census as a sister.) Bertha and Millie were working as telephone operators, a pretty easy job in those days. 

According to Lois, she was very depressed when her mother died in 1916. She tried to commit suicide by drowning herself in the Missouri River (Modale is an abbreviation for Missouri Dale). She walked in up to her neck but couldn't do it. Thank goodness, or I wouldn't be here to write this blog!

In 1930, Lois is married to Karl Vetter and has two small children. Karl is listed as a shoemaker in a shoeshop. 

The house where they lived is still standing today:

As is the building where Karl had his shoeshop:

Now, new questions: Lois is from Iowa, and married Karl in Montana. When she married Karl, her last name was Carstens. Why? How did she meet and marry Karl? Stay tuned...a lot more information about this family will be coming up.

Remember -- just because this blog is about my family, doesn't mean that YOU can't find the same information about your family. As I said before, my family was not wealthy or famous, yet I have been able to fill in a lot of family history information from publicly available records.

If you are reading this blog and have questions about doing your own research, please leave a comment. ANYONE can trace their family tree; most Americans can trace back four generations without ever having to leave their computer.