The other week my teacher had us go to the Rexburg cemetery and pick the name of an individual who’d been dead at least fifty years. Our task is to then find out everything we can about the persons life using public documents and such and then present our findings in a cohesive manner using a tiny bit of poetic license. Needless to say I’m spending a lot of time in the library pouring through documents and books about Rexburg.
It’s actually quite fascinating – from what I’ve been able to gather so far I’ve been able to recreate a timeline of his life using census and military records and his obituary. There’s a couple of things in particular I want to find out before I turn the project in in two weeks – namely I know he died five days before his 29th birthday of a lingering disease, I want to know what it was; he served in World War 1 with the British Royal Engineers and got a medal for it, I want to know what he did; he never got married, I want to know why; he owned a lumber store and some land, I want to know where; his obituary alluded to him being Mormon, I want to find something to back that up.
My teacher said that in previous semesters some students have actually started dreaming about their people – if I’m going to dream about the guy then he better help me find his information, if not than he can just go away. Stranger things have happened though, so we’ll see what happens.
I wish I had more time to devote to this project and do the kind of job I want to on it but with all my other classes and such I won’t be able too. It’s left me with an interesting thought – I’ve been able to find census and military records, draft cards, land deeds, a gravestone and an obituary to prove that he was here and alive, but one element is still missing.
A couple years ago I had a teacher who told us that it’s not enough that we’re born, we live and we die – we have to leave something behind that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were real and existed and that we weren’t just names on a piece of paper, that personal aspect. To that end he had us write everyday in a journal – he told us that someday, whether it be near or far in the future, we’d thank him for making us keep those journals. Parents have come up to him years after the fact and thanked him too – it’s the only record they have of their child’s life.
I started keeping a fairly consistent journal about the time I was in high school and still write in it on a regular basis. I’m working on assembling my life story, complete with photos, I think it adds a human touch and I’m trying to keep copies of important documents together. I’m left wondering if it’ll be enough. Will the record and things I leave behind prove to a future generation that I was real and just like them? Or will they be left wondering who was I and what did I do with the time allotted me?
I’m in search of that personal aspect on my guy – that one glimpse into his character and daily life that only he or someone who knew him can tell me.
I think the fact that you picked a guy who didn't marry or have children will make it harder. Who would have gotten his personal effects, etc? Good Luck!
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