Remembering the Titanic

 I was totally excited to get the chance to review another book for Christian Focus 4 Kids, this one Titanic: the Ship of Dreams- John Harper by Robert Plant.  My oldest, Bubby (9 years old), is totally into seafaring and shipwrecks, so I was looking forward to digging into another historical fiction with him.  He devoured the book in just a little more than a day, and then I got a chance at it:)  The book is based on an actual passenger of the Titanic, John Harper.  I had not heard of Rev. Harper prior to reading this book so I did a little research on him and it made me all the more eager to see what was in store with the fictionalization of his story.  Rev. Harper was a widower from England and traveling with his daughter, Nana to the USA to the Moody Church in Chicago via the Titanic.  The author portrays Rev. Harper just as I would imagine him myself, a person eager to share Jesus with everyone he met.  For example, his home church grew from a mere 25 to over 500 under his time as it's pastor, a sure sign of a thriving church.  While Rev. Harper is the primary character, most of the plot is seen through the eyes of Nana, and it's through her that we get to meet famous people such as the Astors who give her a tour of the ill-fated ship.
  I loved this story for bringing attention to a person who is such a light to the Titanic story.  Even as the ship was going down, Harper was fighting for souls - "women, and children and the unsaved into the lifeboats!".  With his last breath he was leading people to the Lord (that part of the story is very true & his last convert lived to tell the tale!).  The author did a fantastic job not just showing how Harper tried to win souls, but laid out the plan of salvation so plainly that even someone reading the book who is not a Christian could tell what it's all about.
  The book included historical notes on Rev. Harper as well as a timeline of his life & study questions.  I absolutely loved this book!  We will definitely be reading it again, hopefully as a read-aloud (if I can keep from tearing up!).  Thank you Christian Focus 4 Kids for sending me a copy to review!

A picture commonly accepted as being John Harper & his daughter Nana

Starting Young

A young me at a cemetery in Texas

  Genealogy has always been a part of my life.  I can't remember a time when my Mom didn't research; I caught the bug when I was just 18 (read about that here), and my kiddos started going to courthouses & cemeteries when we still had to lug them around in their carriers. 
  Recently one of my buds encouraged me to teach a genealogy class to our homeschool group. Of course I was excited at the chance.  To me, genealogy can teach so much beyond just family relations, it's history, research techniques, problem solving, even math:)  While planning what to do for my fall class, my Mom brought to my attention a really cool program that our State Historical Society is doing called the Sleeping Heroes Project where students research Civil War Veterans buried in Kansas, and then upload the information into a database.  I picked out a handful of local cemeteries we can work on documenting, which was easy since our county has hardly been done yet.  In order to capture the kids' interest (and ok, I admit it, I couldn't wait!) I researched one vet from each of the cemeteries I chose.  I was really surprised at what I found: a spy, one who marched with Sherman through Georgia, a Confederate, one who fought at the first major battle west of the Mississippi, and even one of my own kiddo's ancestors who was captured at Chancellorsville. 
  My enthusiasm for the project rubbed off on Bubby who begged and begged for me to let him start transcribing the ones in our city cemetery.  I finally relented, making the justification that I could see how the whole transcription/research thing would go for a 3rd grader.  It actually went pretty well, he's been accurate with writing down exact spellings, etc... & actually helped me tweak my spreadsheet too.  My plan is to let the older kids do the research and transcription and the younger ones do the bulk of searching out where the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) stars are that mark the vets' graves.
  The plan is to meet once a month and work as a group and if the kiddos and their families have further interest they can work on a smaller cemetery on their own.   I'm excited to see what else we uncover with this project and maybe get some young ones interested in some history!
 

It Never Hurts to Ask

Recently, while prepping for a research trip to Atchison, my mom e-mailed the Depot museum there where our distant cousin William "Deafy" Boular's special boots have been on display too see if they were still as such.  She received a reply that they were not, but if she would ask for the curator upon her arrival, they would bring the boots out for her to see.  Awesome!  This led not only to an actual viewing of the boots, but a one on one with the curator where she could ask some questions of him as well.  She found out that if he had still had his legs, he would have been over 6 foot tall.  The museum is gearing up for another exhibit on Deafy as soon as funding allows, so I'll have to revive my research on him I suppose:)

Deafy's boots