When this first appeared on the List [MOSTCHAR] a few days
ago, I made some remarks about this needed some corrections.
I apologize to Ms. Scobee, as I did not mean her transcription.
I would never attempt to transcribe a book as large as Pioneer
Families, and I would have made many more errors than she.
I applaud her generous effort.
But as a historian and a professional genealogist, I was
speaking more to the point about accuracies in Mr. Bryan's
and Mr. Rose's work. They too should be applauded for their
efforts, as many families would not have any idea of where
to start without the work Pioneer Families. But please keep
in mind when doing your research to consider the source. Written
in 1870 Mr. Bryan rode on horseback through the area soliciting
the family history from the residents. And while oral history
is important, one should never take it as the only source,
as memories can become distorted and stories enlarged as they
are retold. After the patriarch recounted his story to Mr.
Bryan (a Boone family member by the way), the little slips
of paper where sent off to Mr. Rose at the printing office,
for his transcription, and then subsequently published. An
enormous amount of work, but with no proof reading or verifying
any sources.
After studying and writing on this area's history for over
ten years, and having MO Pioneers cited by clients many times,
I have read and re read the book several times. I keep a card
file of the Warren County families as reported by Bryan and
Rose with notations of marriage, census, and other important
information found on these families. Many times they are extremely
accurate. But not when it came to the Germans. Below I have
inserted some notes that it is important to know (in the 21st
century). Research in our families is an ongoing process,
are we not happy when we can say we know more now, than we
did even 10 years ago? Surely we can be happy to know more
than we did 130 years ago.
If you want more information on Duden, the Washington Historical
Society publishes my continuing column on Gottfried Duden
in the Washington Missourian. There are many great books published
on Germans in Missouri, my favorite is the Missouri Heritage
Readers Series "German Settlement in Missouri" by
Robyn Burnett and Ken Luebbering, published by the University
of Missouri Press, Columbia,1996 (ISBN 0-8262-1094-5). There
are two great books by Walter Kamphoefner "The Westfaliens"
and "News from the Land of Freedom" also. The Dutzow
Verein and the Washington Historical will be giving a tour
of the sites in Gottfried Duden's settlement on October 22.
Again, hats off to Ms. Scobee and her ambitious efforts.
And to Mr. Bryan and to Mr. Rose - thank you - and I hope
you don't mind a little "up dating". And I'm sorry
but I have a hard time seeing our German names so messed up-
so I fixed some of them too.
Dorris Keeven
http://www.usmo.com/~history
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