| |
Venee Larsen shares
with husband Aulen and Museum Curator Jere Cox
information
gleaned from aged Carroll County records. The
Larsens came from Utah to help catalog
and preserve records for use in genealogical
research. |
Who doesn't dream in childhood of finding
long-abandoned treasure? In time, through fable or
experience, we often learn our treasure is upon our
doorstep if we will but seek it there.
Aulen and Venee Larsen, missionaries from the Genealogical
Society of Utah, came to McKenzie in October 2000 to help
uncover our collective treasure: the every-day happenings
of generations of West Tennesseans who came before us.
They came, Venee explains, "because we believe in
genealogy. We came to do this so everyone here can have
this work, and we're not doing it alone."
In fact, some 20 volunteers - some from as far away as
Memphis and Atlanta - have worked together to make
searching for family roots at the Gordon Browning Museum
and Genealogical Museum a pleasurable experience.
What many people do not realize, however, is the museum
and library houses much more than interesting relics of
Governor Browning's life and political history and
research documents. Over the years since it was chartered
by the Mary Ruth Devault and Governor Browning in 1971,
many families have donated an amazing array of relics and
memorabilia from their families' historical collections.
It's a way of ensuring the items remain safe and intact,
says Venee, who explains that heirs sometimes throw away
items of great historical and sentimental value to their
deceased relatives and generations to come.
For Aulen and Venee, maintaining accurate genealogical
records have even greater significance: "It tells us in
the Bible to keep a clear and perfect record of our
lineage; everyone came from Noah most come from Abraham,"
she says. "Too many people don't know we are supposed to
keep a good record and too many people don't know how."
Indeed, a quick look through www.familysearch.org - a
website of the Genealogical Society of Utah in association
with the Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints) reveals church members are interested in
researching their family histories because "they are
motivated by love for their deceased family members and
desire to serve them."
The LDS Church teaches that families make special promises
or covenants in "sacred temples" that, "when made with the
authority of God and faithfully kept, can unite families
for eternity."
The church further believes the covenant can be extended
to the deceased ancestors of church who will also be
reunited with their families if their ancestors, in the
"spirit world" choose to accept the covenants made by
their living relatives. In order for this to take place,
families must first identify their deceased relatives.
Therefore, the work of the church is to seek the
cooperation of agencies worldwide in a continuing effort
at making the lines between the generations clearer and to
make the information available to all searchers,
regardless of religious affiliation.
If the Larsen's beliefs seem off base to non-Mormon's,
their own personal history is as common-place as anyone's.
Showing off the museum's lower rooms full of antiques from
West Tennessee farm families, she recalls her own
childhood when going to the outhouse was a way of life.
When she started school, nature called but an outhouse was
nowhere to be seen. Before long, it was too late to wonder
where it was. Luckily, her teacher was a kind and
understanding woman who pinned a pair of her own panties
upon little Vanee and showed her where "these nice
government outhouses were located," she laughed, "It
didn't look like the outhouse at our house."
Both Aulen and Vanee's families felt the bite of lean
times in America during the depression and World War II.
Aulen's father knew how to repair shoes, a real asset in a
time when many family members had one pair each.
Only two days after Aulen retired from his job as an oil
field service truck driver, the bishop called the couple
in and asked them to serve in the mission field.
"Both of us knew we wouldn't say no; not when we were
called to serve the Lord," Vanee says.
Still, the couple looked at the available posts and knew
their health problems, particularly with their knees,
would keep them from being able to perform well at any of
the places listed.
By this time in their lives, their family had grown
dramatically as well. They had four grown children, 13
grandchildren "not counting the ones that married in" and
14 great-grandchildren.
Vanee managed a craft store out of their home, a renovated
"LDS State Center" in which the former chapel housed the
merchandise.
The couple's oldest child had died at the age of seven, a
fact that solidified the couple's commitment to the work
of the church. "We'll see him again if we do what we're
supposed to do," she says, "That's one of the major
reasons why we didn't turn it down but in all honesty
we're loving it so much."
After surgeries corrected some of the problems the couple
experienced, they became a part of the Nashville,
Tennessee mission, assigned to help with a project that
had already begun in the Gordon Browning Museum.
In 1997, workers from the University of Tennessee at
Martin Special Collections Department set out to
"preserve, document and inventory the over fifty
manuscript collections stored in the Museum's repository."
By the project's end, the group had also cataloged the
materials available in the Genealogical Library and put
the museum and library on the Internet with a searchable
Website.
As manager of the museum, McKenzian Pat Boone worked with
volunteers to catalog and file the ever-growing collection
and keep computer records updated. She requested the help
of an archivist and contacted the Genealogical Society of
Utah for help.
Milan resident Jere Cox joined the museum as archivist
with help coming from Utah in the form of Aulen and Vanee
in the fall of 2000. When health problems later caused Ms.
Boone to retire, Cox replaced her as curator of the
museum.
The Larsens wasted no time joining the work that was
already in progress when they arrived. Approximately 12-13
local volunteers work with present curator Jere Cox and
the Larsens to ensure records retrieved from courthouse
stores, funeral homes and other sources are filed,
re-boxed, indexed on the computer and microfilmed.
The Larsens set up shop in the museum's specially designed
archive room.
Protectant film on windows and light bulbs protect fragile
documents from the effects of ultraviolet rays while
periodic insect treatment protects against new invasions
of paper mites and other vermin. Metal shelves instead of
wood are used as the resin in the wood affects paper. Tops
on the shelves add further protection to important
documents stored there. The temperature is maintained at
68 degrees year round.
Work progresses in the room with windows blacked out to
ensure quality microfilming of documents. Vanee indexes
documents on the computer in the darkened room while Aulen
microfilms the specially prepared documents.
Microfilming the records ensures that documents already
damaged by age are protected from further handling by
successive generations of researchers. Museum workers
sorted through mountains of boxes haphazardly filled with
"folded, bent, crumpled, torn, dirty, sun faded, water
marked, moldy papers" from the 1800s, some of which were
further damaged by insects and mice. Others were the
charred survivors of the 1931 courthouse fire during which
fire fighters sprayed the storage vaults to keep their
enclosed contents from igniting. Lost in the fire,
however, were wills dating back to 1821 said to have been
placed beneath the floor for safekeeping.
Another curious find inside a wooden box half filled with
cement chips was a big fish hook that had been used to
secure receipts of grocery sales.
The documents were "humidified, cleaned, back folded, and
filed in archival file folders and boxes in alphabetical
order, or by year in alphabetical order," says Vanee.
The documents were first placed inside humidifiers
fashioned from coolers or plastic boxes with tight lids.
The boxes were filled with a half-inch of water to which
less than a teaspoon of Clorox was added, over which a
plastic or plastic-covered rack was situated to hold the
documents above the water's surface. Inside the closed
containers, some of the papers humidified over night while
others took nearly a week to humidify. This process
renders the brittle papers more pliable and smooths old
folds and bent papers. The documents were then backfolded
to remove the old creases while dust was brushed away. The
bleach rid the papers of mold and insects. When necessary,
damaged documents were repaired before being placed inside
archival folders which were labeled and stored in smaller
"easy-to-handle" boxes that were shelved in alphabetical
order to await further processing.
Among the records indexed both on the computer and in big
notebooks are Chancery Court proceedings such as wills and
estate proceedings and marriage license information from
the County Clerk.
Far from yielding just the names of the deceased
individual, many of the legal documents include names of
immediate and extended family members with some older
documents also revealing the names of slaves and servants.
Vanee's dedication to her purpose is evident in the detail
she goes into to ensure researchers find the data they are
searching for. Indexes of court cases are referenced by
plaintiff's name and cross-referenced by defendant's name.
In estate cases, the names of everyone mentioned are
listed, with a separate index for those mentioned as
"slave", "negro" or "colored person".
Volunteers at the library are at work creating similar
indexes and microfilming of funeral home records of every
funeral home "east of Highway 45, west of the river and
north of I-40" except for five.
The work performed by Aulen and Venee is completely free
to the museum. The Larsens forward the microfilmed records
to Utah where they are re-routed to the Tennessee State
Archives in Nashville. There they are duplicated and
returned to the Gordon Browning Museum and Genealogical
Library.
That Utah retains a copy of the microfilmed records gives
their society genealogical information they share with
others through their research services and provides a
backup to the museum's copy in the event of catastrophe.
The society is so intent on ensuring the safekeeping of
the records, they are stored in a vault dug into a canyon
wall beneath 700 feet of sold granite on Granite Mountain
near Salt Lake City.
Aulen and Vanee are well pleased with the work they have
helped accomplish at the museum, though they rush to give
the credit to every other museum employee and volunteer
from Jere Cox on down to those who may volunteer in the
future.
Some of the people who have helped with the project are
Carroll County residents Mildred Moore, Linda Marrison,
Karen Merritt, Wanda Johnson, Pat Boone, James Choate, Jo
Ann Hickman, Rose and Jenny Vermillian, Ernest Wyatt,
Linda Dunlap of Bradford, Weakley Countians Janie Crider
and Maria Baxter, Milan residents Charles and Jolene
Tippett, Lou Hickson of Bath, Michigan, Lynn Franklin of
Memphis and Jenny Garner of Atlanta Georgia.
In addition to these volunteer, 11 elders from the LDS
church - 19 to 21 year old missionaries based in
Huntingdon and Paris - have participated in the project.
"That's the whole point, there's so much here," says Vanee,
"People are going to be able to find all kinds of
information but Jere could use twice as many people to
help."
March 26 is the official date of departure for the couple
who have come to love West Tennessee so much that one of
their grandchildren asked, "Do you love Tennessee more
than you love Utah?"
Vanee says they may end up staying a week or two longer if
it looks like a short amount of time might finish the work
they started two and a half years ago.
"When we leave we will have everything done to 1950
regarding wills, divorces and marriage licenses. The
cut-off date on everything else is 1900. After 1900 the
Chancery records are not nearly as colorful; they went
straight to the point," Vanee says.
She has full faith that the work will continue with the
dedication of Curator Jere Cox and volunteers who are on
hand to steer researchers in the right direction as well
as carry on the work of the museum and library's growing
collections.
"Throughout all these months of amassing geological
information and organizing it, more very interesting
memorabilia of life in Carroll County today and all of the
yesterdays are being added to the many displays on both
floors of the museum," she says.
She and Jere encourage families to gather their family
histories, memorabilia, scrapbooks, etc. for storage in
the facility that is open to the public Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday & Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
"Everything here is on loan to us," Jere says. If the
family wants it back they can have it."
"Everything in here has a memory in some family, it's a
great place," Vanee says fondly.
Soon, her every two-week newsletter to the grandchildren
will be replaced with real hugs and kisses when the couple
returns to Utah. But forevermore, the people of Carroll
County and West Tennessee, as well as many who have
stretched their roots to diverse locations, will reap the
benefit of two who came from the west to share their time
and talents to add clarity to the roots that make our home
one of the greatest in the world. |
