My new job

I took on another volunteer job this past week and it is fun. I am typing from a book called History of Cedar County. I type the pages and email them to a gal from Muscatine who is a volunteer for http://iagenweb.org. It is a web based place for geneology searches or just for fun; every county is in on this. In Cedar county you can search cemeteries, land owners etc. I am typing biographies and it is interesting because some of the names are familiar. The stories tell about pioneers coming to Iowa--I just typed one in which the ship he was coming to America on caught on fire; another where the ship was in a storm and the masts broke. Many people came to Iowa by way of Pennyslvania on horseback or in wagons. I don't think we realize how hard it was for people to really settle in Iowa. One man broke the prairie with oxen, not just his own land but for other people. Hard work? They lived in sod houses or log cabins. Some made lots of money (I think those in the book were the "rich" ones) by buying and selling land, some had purebred livestock. Almost all had at least 5 - 10 children but at least one would die at a young age.

If this interests you at all, check it out and read some of the biographies. The ones I have typed aren't on yet; but I just finished page 150 of over 800 pages so I have a way to go. Good job for this hot weather! Anything than do housework!