I was born and spent my early years in Wichita, Kansas; my dad was transferred out here to Everett, Washington (near Seattle) in 1968 with Boeing. When teaching, family and activities allow, I enjoy doing genealogy, especially when it leads to talking to an "elder" in a family line. My grandmother, Ivalee (Hill) O'Grady (1915-2011), died just a couple years ago. I was in awe of her early life in rural Kansas; facing the Dust Bowl Days and Depression. Grandmother was my link to the ancestors; she KNEW the original pioneers who settled in northwest Kansas in the 1870s and 1880s. It's hard to believe, but in her childhood Grandmother knew relatives born in 1829 and 1846-amazing! Particularly amazing considering (and I just checked) there are only a hand full of people now left in the world who were even alive in the 1800s! Wow! Time marches on; it's time to get family stories written down while we can!

I was born and spent my early years in Wichita, Kansas; my dad was transferred out here to Everett, Washington (near Seattle) in 1968 with Boeing. When teaching, family and activities allow, I enjoy doing genealogy, especially when it leads to talking to an "elder" in a family line. My grandmother, Ivalee (Hill) O'Grady (1915-2011), died just a couple years ago. I was in awe of her early life in rural Kansas; facing the Dust Bowl Days and Depression. Grandmother was my link to the ancestors; she KNEW the original pioneers who settled in northwest Kansas in the 1870s and 1880s. It's hard to believe, but in her childhood Grandmother knew relatives born in 1829 and 1846-amazing! Particularly amazing considering (and I just checked) there are only a hand full of people now left in the world who were even alive in the 1800s! Wow! Time marches on; it's time to get family stories written down while we can!