Hello & Welcome

I have decided to start a blog (ta-dah) chronicling stories and theories I've come across in my research that may be of interest to family members.  The urge to share the info I've found started way back in the '70s (how long ago is that?! Never mind!) when my mother, Judith Baxter Olauson Tourney gave her father, Lee, a tape recorder and a couple of cassette tapes and said, "Dad, I want to know something about you", and charged him with the task of recording stories from his life.  A life that she didn't know too much about.  Lee, being on the more silent end of the spectrum in those matters, accepted the gift and told her that he'd try and because of his lack of verbosity, Judith didn't think the return would be as fruitful as she hoped.  Little did she expect that she would be very delightedly wrong.

Leland Lavern Golightly  Baxter around 1900-1902

Not only did Lee come up with a few stories never before heard, he embraced the project with a photographic memor-ied fervor which filled multiple tapes, front and back, revealing minute details about his life from the time he was approximately two.  It was amazing to listen to him tell these stories as though they were yesterday and Judith knew she had a treasure.  I (Jennifer) began transcribing them in my late teens on an antiquated thing called a typewriter and was only able to complete a few pages as the effort was enormous without the aid of word processing.  So, these treasures were tucked away for many years and half-forgotten.

Around eight years ago, when Judith and Leonard had already moved from Santa Barbara to Provo and Judith was collaborating with KBYU, she asked a colleague if he could digitize these many, old cassette tapes into an easier form to not only listen to, but also to transcribe since the advent of the computer had made that kind of thing infinitely easier to accomplish.  I became more excited about renewing my efforts to do just that.

I uploaded the CDs (about 20 of them) onto my computer to make them portable, allowing Judith to hang onto them as she didn't want to let them out of her sight.  I began a Word document entitled, by Lee, -------------------.  I was amazed at the detail in which he unfolded his life and the world as it was from 1898 on-wards.

Then, an even more amazing thing happened.  I had begun working in the Family History Center branch in our Stake (this WAS NOT the more amazing thing) and had become familiar with many of the advanced technological tools any genealogist would have killed for 20, no, even 10 years ago like digitized BMD (birth, marriage, death) records, newspapers digitized on line, etc.  With this arsenal at my disposal, I decided to put Grandpa's memory to the test.  (this WAS the more amazing thing)When Lee made reference to a place, an event, a thing, a date, I would "Google" the thing referred to, testing his accuracy.  And guess what?!  Reference after reference, date after date, Lee was spot on accurate.  Sometimes, even to the day!! 

I decided that I would insert pictures of the places,  people, events that Lee described, knowing that they were accurate because everything was cross-referenced!  Amazing!  I will publish chapters on this page, sharing with family what an incredible life Leland Lavern (Golightly) Baxter had.  As of present, I think I'm on page 60 and I'm up to about 1930-31.  Enjoy