Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

It’s Saturday Night again —

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1) Do you have any records of your ancestors' schooling, such as report cards, yearbooks, or photos?

Both of my grandmothers were "keepers." They saved a wonderful variety of family items, including photographs, military papers, letters and, yes, even school records.

Among those treasured items are two school souvenirs that document the childhood of my grandfather, Edward Osmond Briles, and his siblings.

The first is a 1906 school souvenir from Rock Creek School, District No. 69, which lists four Briles children: Ethel, Osmond, Lulu and Glen.

Rock Creek School was located in Pleasant Township, Coffey County, Kansas. Although the school had a Burlington, Kansas, mailing address, it was not actually located in the city of Burlington.

This little souvenir does more than tell me where my grandfather attended school. It also helps place the Briles family in a particular location at a particular time.

Two years later, the children were attending a different school. This 1908 school souvenir from Phelps School lists Edward Osmond Briles and his siblings Lulu, Ethel and Glen among the students.

Phelps School was located in Liberty Township, Woodson County, Kansas.

Together, these two school records help document a move by the Briles family. In 1906, the children were attending school in Pleasant Township in southern Coffey County. By the 1908 school term, they were attending Phelps School in Liberty Township in northern Woodson County.

Neither record was created to document the family's migration. Yet when the two are placed side by side, they narrow the family's move to the period between the spring of 1906 and the 1908 school term.

That's one of the things I love about the items our ancestors and grandparents chose to keep. A simple school souvenir may seem like just a childhood keepsake, but more than a century later, it can become a valuable piece of genealogical evidence.