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Whose family? Well ours, of course. That is, mine (Dave Nims) and Carol's. On my side are my mother's family, the Hogg and Nutter lines, and my father's family, the Nims and Buell lines. On Carol's side are her mother's family, the Wagner and Haider lines, and her father's family, the Leistiko and Bleich lines. Of course, like all families, many other lines merge into our ancestral heritage through marriages in earlier generations. Then there are other marriages of our blood relations. And, of course, there are the marriages of our ancestor's other siblings and children. And on and on and on …
Suffice it to say, that any person who is related by blood, marriage, or adoption to any of our blood relatives, is eligible for a page in the Family Web Page. (This should cover most everyone in the world!)
HISTORY: The Family Web Page was started in the summer of 2001. My father, Frank Nims, has had a long time interest in Nims family history, and has compiled a comprehensive genealogy of the descendents of Alpheus John Nims, his great grandfather. Also, there is an old trunk in my parent's house filled with old pictures and artifacts related to my mother's family. I was interested in learning web page design and had started experimenting designing simple web pages. Somewhere along the line, I got the idea of organizing all the family pictures and history in a series of linked web pages. This work put me in touch with various family historians and sleuths, some living, like my father and June (Leistiko) Lundgren, and some already gone, like my grandfather John Hogg. This is a labor of love for me. I have learned a lot about the history, character, and values of my pioneer ancestors, and about the world they lived in. It also gives me a great deal of pleasure in making all this accessible to others who would not otherwise be able to enjoy and learn from it.
STRUCTURE: The Family Web Page is really a collection of one or more web pages per family. One can jump from page to page via the underlined links designed into each page. The Index page lists all the people for whom web pages have been developed, along with their birth years, spouses, and parents, for reference purposes.
SECURITY:As with all websites, these family web pages can be found by Internet search engines. Hearing from distant, previously unknown, relatives who find this site is exciting. However, since the information in these pages is public, I have a policy of including the birth year only, not the exact birth date, for anyone who is living. Of course, other items like mother's maiden name, city of birth, etc. are there for all to see. So there is a tradeoff between the desire for personal privacy and the desire to share personal history with other family members. Each of you will have to consider these factors in deciding just how much of your personal life you are willing to share.
CONTRIBUTING: This Family Web Page grows in value only when people take the time and trouble to collect their family history and pictures, and send them to me. I highly encourage all of you to make the collection of this information a high-priority family project, especially if you have family members who are advanced in years. Their memories of their early lives and family histories have real value and can easily be lost forever unless steps are taken. Even things like identifying the people in old photos, which can easily be done today, can be impossible after these old folks pass on.
What material should be collected? I really like old photos, preferably those that show old cars, houses, farms, or other things that give a sense of the environment in which people lived, as well as the people themselves. At the least, you should document the children, places of birth and residence, significant dates (birth, marriage, death, moving, etc.) and occupation. The real gems are the memoirs - when people take the time to really document the history of their family and lives that might be of interest to future generations. These are rare, but much appreciated by all. Check out the Stories of My Life by Jacob Daum. Old letters may also be appropriate if they give meaningful insight into life at the time. (A good example of this is a letter written by my grandfather John Hogg to his mother, describing a trip he took to Oregon to look at some property he had purchased.) Another great source of information is a eulogy, which often provides a good summary of a person's life as well as insights as to their character, such as the eulogy written for my grandmother which was read at her funeral.
It is easier for me if all textual material is provided as an attachment to an e-mail, or in the e-mail itself. This eliminates the step of retyping, or scanning and converting it (via Optical Character Recognition software) back into a computer text file. However, if this is not possible, just mail it to me and I'll deal with it.
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Unless you have access to a very good scanner, and know how to use it, I'd much prefer that you send me original photos, rather than digital scans of the photos. I have invested in the capability to scan photos (up to 8.5 x 12 inches) and 35 mm slides and negatives. Don't worry if the pictures are badly faded, scratched, cracked, crazed, or otherwise damaged. In nearly all cases I can retouch the digital scans to make them look brand new. I realize that these pictures are priceless to you, but this is really the only way to do it. I will scan them and return them promptly, though it might be awhile before I can get to designing your web page. As a bonus, along with the photos, I will send you a CD containing high- resolution, archival quality, digital copies, fully retouched, of all the photos you send me.
I do ask that the relevant info and available pictures you provide are sufficient to allow me to link into the main Family Web Page. For example, if you are Jenny Smith and your great, great grandparents were Jan and Luiza Leistikow, you should provide the pictures and history for all your ancestors between you and the Leistikows, except for those people that are already covered in the Family Web Page.
I would like to emphasize that if you have married into the family, you can still add your side of the family to the web page. Just supply the information on yourself and your ancestors as far back as it goes.
Another very important point. Using the web as the media for hosting this information allows features not available in any other media. Not only is it accessible anywhere in the world, but one can use links to other existing web pages that have historical or informational relevance to the person's life. Thus when a town, a college, company, organization, geographic feature, etc. is mentioned in a web page, real value can be added by providing a link to a page that describes it or provides its history. The reader can access these links or not, depending on his or her level of interest. When this technique is used, and the web page text itself also includes references to world conditions or events that affected the lives of our ancestors, exploring the Family Web Page can be a lesson on world history and geography, as well as a lesson on family history. As with most things in life, the more you put into this material, the more people will get out of it. To illustrate this concept, check out my father's web page, and click on some of the embedded links. Some of the links will take you to other pages that expand on my parents lives (some still under construction), and some that will take you to other existing related web pages.
By far the most substantive, detailed, and informative webpage on my site is The Life and Times of William and Dinah Nutter - Priarie Pioneers. Written originally by Michael Schueur, it documents their lives from their early lives in Lancashire, England, joining a Morman wagon train to Salt Lake City, settling in Nebraska, fighting blizzards, Indians, the works! Well worth a read, even if you are not in the Nutter line.
I look forward to hearing from you all, and perhaps meeting
you at some point.If you have comments or questions, feel free to
contact me at
djnims7@gmail.com. Send photos and other material to:
David Nims
21980 SW Aebischer Road
Sherwood, OR 97140
Phone: 503-901-4105
May God bless you all!