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Genealogy Workshop - February 9, 2008 10 AM to 4 P.M.
Through Grandfather's Eyes, Postcards are a View to the Past
by Duane Stabler
The February Genealogy Workshop will feature Duane Stabler, who has a unique collection of historical postcards which he has used to give people a way to see what small towns (in Duane's case, north-central South Dakota) looked like in the early 1900's. This is the time when his grandparents were young people and may have had the opportunity to get to town after putting in some long hard hours on the farm. Duane's collection consists of postcards from Eureka, SD, and other communities surrounding Eureka, but he also has postcards from areas where German-Russians moved after leaving the Dakotas. One such area is Canada, where Duane found relatives and learned that those families moved at a time when postcards were frequently used as a means to stay in touch. Postcards, at the turn of the 20th century, were the email of the day. They were used to just say hi, how is it going? Or they were used to indicate where people were as they traveled to do various types of work. Photographers were able to capture much of this as a result of new technology that enabled this piece of history to be recorded. The talk was interactive since Duane will allowed all to participate as he talks about the cards.
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