Everyone Has a Reason Why
Marilyn Klaphake, Director
Pictured here is: Meeting my grandfather, Joseph Beste for the first time in Berkeley, CA.
The longing to know more about where you come from sometimes leads to unimaginable adventures. For me this quest started out in Berkeley, California. My father had few personal possessions besides his harmonica, but he did have a drawer full of pictures of his family in Minnesota. Between the pictures and our summer visits to Sauk Centre it was my destiny to eventually make Main Street my home.
Over the years of researching both sides of my family I have organized vacations around historical trips to Germany and all over the United States to locate ancestors in libraries and cemeteries just waiting to be found.
People who research generally ask themselves:
The why leads to who, where, what & how. Now you have a story that is uniquely yours.
We can search for the same ships, but each ancestor has their reason for boarding.
What I wouldn’t give to be able to ask the questions I have of those I now search.
Figuring out their story helps me to understand mine.
The Sauk Centre Area Museum & Research Center is the place to start searching for your why and maybe find some answers for questions you didn’t ask. Our staff is always happy to help.
Through family histories, files, maps and the Sauk Centre Herald, answers show up when you least expect them. For example, while searching the Herald I found an article about my father who was working as a mechanic in a local garage. The car was on a jack which slipped out causing the car to drop on top of him. It made the front page. Two columns over was the announcement that Sinclair Lewis had just won the Nobel Prize for literature. Now that front page was a gem that I had no idea I was looking for!
The research center is the place to start or continue your journey. Discovering your "why" may lead to who, what, where and how as well as details you did not expect.
Pictured here is: Meeting my grandfather, Joseph Beste for the first time in Berkeley, CA.
The longing to know more about where you come from sometimes leads to unimaginable adventures. For me this quest started out in Berkeley, California. My father had few personal possessions besides his harmonica, but he did have a drawer full of pictures of his family in Minnesota. Between the pictures and our summer visits to Sauk Centre it was my destiny to eventually make Main Street my home.
Over the years of researching both sides of my family I have organized vacations around historical trips to Germany and all over the United States to locate ancestors in libraries and cemeteries just waiting to be found.
People who research generally ask themselves:
- Who am I trying to find?
- Why is it important?
- Where did they live?
- Who did they know?
- Why didn’t I ask questions?
- Why did our ancestors make the choices they made?
The why leads to who, where, what & how. Now you have a story that is uniquely yours.
We can search for the same ships, but each ancestor has their reason for boarding.
What I wouldn’t give to be able to ask the questions I have of those I now search.
Figuring out their story helps me to understand mine.
The Sauk Centre Area Museum & Research Center is the place to start searching for your why and maybe find some answers for questions you didn’t ask. Our staff is always happy to help.
Through family histories, files, maps and the Sauk Centre Herald, answers show up when you least expect them. For example, while searching the Herald I found an article about my father who was working as a mechanic in a local garage. The car was on a jack which slipped out causing the car to drop on top of him. It made the front page. Two columns over was the announcement that Sinclair Lewis had just won the Nobel Prize for literature. Now that front page was a gem that I had no idea I was looking for!
The research center is the place to start or continue your journey. Discovering your "why" may lead to who, what, where and how as well as details you did not expect.
