Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

 Weathering the Storms

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. Did extreme weather or a natural disaster ever affect you or your ancestor(s)? In what way(s)? How did you find this out? Describe one or more extreme weather experiences in your own life or in the lives of your ancestors.

I’m sure extreme weather affected not only my life but also the lives of many of my ancestors. After all, my father’s family lived through the Dust Bowl years in western Kansas, and I remember my grandmother sharing stories about those difficult times.

However, for this week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, I’m going to concentrate on some more recent weather events — events that affected my parents and eventually became part of my own memories.

A Wedding Surrounded by Water

Growing up, I often heard my mother tell stories about her wedding day and how flooding complicated the celebration.

My parents were married in Emporia, Kansas, in June 1951. Emporia sits near the Cottonwood and Neosho rivers, making flooding a recurring part of the community’s history. Reservoirs and other flood-control measures have reduced that threat today, but those protections were not in place when my parents married.

Flooding had closed major roads leading into and out of Emporia. As a result, my grandparents, the best man, and others traveling to the wedding had to get creative with their travel plans just to reach town.

One of my favorite stories involved my maternal grandfather. He operated a movie theater, and after the wedding festivities were over, the motion picture reels still had to be returned. According to my mother, her father had to use a boat to return the reels because the roads were still underwater.

For years, I assumed these stories were connected to the famous Great Flood of 1951. It wasn’t until I began researching the family and looking more closely at the dates that I discovered a problem with that assumption.

The Great Flood of 1951 occurred in July, while my parents were married in June.

Their wedding stories weren't about the Great Flood. Emporia had experienced flooding in June, too. The rivers caused problems for travelers around the time of their wedding and then rose again during the catastrophic flooding in July.

It was a good reminder that family stories can be accurate even when, over the years, we attach them to the wrong historical event.

The Blizzard of 1957

Flooding wasn’t the only extreme weather my parents encountered.

In March 1957, a blizzard struck Dodge City. At the time, we were living on the north side of town, while my grandparents lived closer to the center of Dodge City.

My mother was eight months pregnant, and there was concern that she might deliver early. When accidents blocked both ends of our street, my parents decided it would be safer to get to my grandparents’ house rather than risk being stranded at home if she went into labor.

My grandparents managed to drive as far as the block directly west of our house.

Getting everyone from our house to their car was another matter.

According to my dad, he carried my pregnant mother through the snow. A neighbor carried me and my younger brother, while another neighbor carried the suitcases.

It must have been quite a procession!

Thankfully, the baby did not choose the middle of a Kansas blizzard to make an early appearance. But the story became another piece of family history passed down through my parents’ memories.

Tornadoes — Part of Growing Up in Kansas

Of course, life in Kansas also means living with the possibility of tornadoes.

As a child, I remember spending evenings in our basement with the Lee family when severe weather threatened. The children stayed safely downstairs while the adults played cards upstairs.

Tornado warnings were simply part of growing up in Kansas.

It wasn’t until shortly after my marriage, however, that I experienced the aftermath of a significant tornado firsthand.

On June 8, 1974, a tornado struck northwest Emporia. My husband and I were living in an apartment closer to the center of town, so our home was not damaged. However, houses just a few blocks from my parents’ home were hit.

At the time, I was working at St. Mary’s Hospital. Following the hospital’s emergency procedures, I reported for work.

After dropping me off, my husband and his brother went into the damaged neighborhoods. They spent several hours helping residents move furniture out of damaged houses and putting tarps over roofs that had been torn open by the storm.

Meanwhile, the danger wasn't over.

While I was at the hospital, the tornado sirens sounded two more times as additional storms threatened the area.

The standard tornado procedure at the hospital was to move patients into the hallways, away from windows. Pediatrics, however, was on the top floor. The head of nursing decided that the children should be moved to the basement.

So we ran upstairs, grabbed a child, and carried the children downstairs to safety.

Then we waited.

That experience made tornado warnings very different from the childhood evenings spent safely in the basement. This time, I was one of the adults responsible for helping protect someone else.

The Flood of 1993

Almost forty years after flooding complicated my parents’ wedding, another major flood affected our family's travels.

In 1993, my husband and I were returning home from Colorado while flooding was affecting much of Kansas and the Midwest. Instead of simply choosing the normal route home, we found ourselves watching for road closures and changing our route to avoid flooded highways.

We eventually made it home safely.

As we worked our way around the flooded roads, however, I couldn't help but think about the stories I had heard from my parents — particularly the difficulties my grandparents encountered trying to travel from Dodge City to Emporia for that June 1951 wedding.

Different generation. Different flood.

But once again, swollen rivers determined where a family could — and could not — travel.

Weather Becomes Family History

Floods, blizzards, and tornadoes are usually recorded as weather statistics and newspaper headlines. For families, though, those events become something much more personal.

They become stories about a grandfather taking movie reels across flooded rivers in a boat.

They become stories about a father carrying his eight-months-pregnant wife through a blizzard while neighbors carried the children and luggage.

They become memories of tornado sirens, hospital hallways, damaged homes, and neighbors helping neighbors.

And they become stories about trying to find an open road home while floodwaters cover the usual route.

Genealogy isn't just about births, marriages, and deaths. Sometimes understanding our family history also means understanding the weather our families had to endure.

And in Kansas, there is certainly plenty of weather to remember.