Emily Dickinson’s intriguing regard–“looking oppositely”–gives this website its title and its stance. Her lyricism encourages me as I turn around, searching behind me for imprints left by others.
Confident in my own suspicions, I focus the angle of my search differently than others have directed me. In looking past the insufficient genealogies and the misrouted family stories in which the lives of women have not been well remembered, or in some cases even remembered at all, I’ve come to find the deeply buried roots of the women who support my family’s tree.
Girls, sisters, cousins who bore no children, aunts who never married, mothers and grandmothers who over time have in my reckoning, all too quickly disappeared.
The following pages are an attempt to trace the lives of these women and to give them back their place. A place in which the greatest part is their own to play, and share or not with others.
Gretchen Elsner-Sommer, nee Gretsch
I was researching Walter Marion Tydings of Miami, OK, when I found him mentioned with wife, Nellie (Johnson), in Hattie’s Travel Diary 1904-1908. He was the son of Edward E. Tydings and Verinda E. Wharton of Middle Grove, MO. Thank you for sharing!
Hello Ms Elsen-Sommer/Gretsch,
I am the only great grandchild of William and Ella Drawe, who are mentioned in your timeline. I recently moved to Missouri, and have located Williams grave at Mt. Hope. He died of a gunshot wound in Dec. 1931. Ella lived many years later, and died in Avenel, New Jersey. Seeing that William was a pallbearer at Chris. Aug. Dieter’s funeral, I wonder about the tie there. Also, my grandmother was named Helen. She had told me a story that sounded similar to the story of the DeLapre family. I remember it as something about french royalty, and having to flee France. Whether that was “shirttail” or blood. I do not know. I have inherited a huge collection of Joplin pictures and will also reference your photos when I go through them. Any input would be appreciated!
Thank you,
Karl