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Welcome...to the
Jackson County MN genealogy website!
Jackson County is located in southwest Minnesota and borders Iowa.
Riverside Cemetery, Jackson MN, 1916 and 2009
1916 photo courtesy Jackson Co Hist. Society
2009 photo by Randy Wendel
Carlyn Rott sends in this photo of a small metal container ...about 2 inches tall including the 3 metal (I assume tin) legs and about 2 inches in diameter that looks almost like a Norwegian pudding holder. It is decorated with what is supposed to look like rosemaling similar to Telemark designs. The cover of the container reads "FR. MEYER, CHRISTIANIA." Purchased in Iowa, it's unknown if the labeling refers to Christiania Township rather than Christiania Norway. Does anyone know about a FR. MEYER? If you can provide any info to Carlyn, email her at: rottfarm(at)mwt.net (insert the @-sign properly in the email address please).
submitted by Carlyn Rott
Welcome to the Jackson Co MN genealogy website!
My name is Randy Wendel (meet Randy), Rootsweb volunteer coordinator and webmaster for Jackson County, MN since May 2007. My goal is to keep this website regularly updated with Jackson Co genealogy and Jackson Co Historical Society information. I'm always interested in contributions to post on this website so please pass along any photos, person or family history/genealogy related items! Also note I live 150-miles from Jackson County (Mpls/St.Paul) and as of 2008 my trips there will be less frequent. As a life member of the JCHS, the distance keeps me from on-site volunteering and research. Therefore, the least I can do in any volunteer-capacity on a regular basis is maintain this web site! Click here to email me with questions, submissions, etc.
Happenings, July 2009...Reunion, vacation, crash, and who will continue the history now?
July 4: I was excited for Sat June 27 to arrive for several months...almost a year for that matter. A few descendants of the Joseph N. Prokes (my G-Grandfather) family were planning a one-of-a-kind family reunion at his farm (homesteaded by his grand-daughter and her husband). Some (or several) descendants were spread out across the country literally coast-to-coast AND Alaska, and frankly were not very familiar with each other, some of whom (including myself) had never set foot on the Prokes farm. Hence...a family reunion was due and was well attended. A fair amount of history abounds the farm and Joseph N. Prokes (D:1941) was well known around the area in his day and had been featured in several newspaper articles along the way. One particular highlight of mine was looking at the bouquet of flax which J.Prokes had hung on one of the joists in the grainery and was still in place right where he put it...68+plus years later.
The following day after breakfast on the farm we (wife and son) hooked up the popup camper and headed north toward Brainerd. We had taken the following week off to enjoy a vacation of sorts to camp at one of our favorite campgrounds just south of Brainerd. During our stay, one task of mine was to pick up where I had left off last September seeking the burial location of a very distant relative on my paternal grandmothers' side of the family (Lueck). I had a brief email exchange with a Lueck relative from Iowa (whom I did not know) last November, and I thought she might be interested in a photo of the headstone. I was eventually able to find locate the site and snap a picture thanks to the map placed online by the cemetery association.
Upon arriving home, I parked my pickup with camper in tow across the street from my driveway (we share an extra-wide driveway with a neighbor) so I could move my work vehicle out of the way and also quickly pickup some sticks on the driveway that had fallen from the tree that week. It just happened that a car drove into the neighbor's driveway and dropped of my neighbor. As I finished a quick chat with our neighbor, her friend was backing out of the driveway...and...(you can see this coming?) I had my back to the street when I heard a "snap" sound. Before turning around, I had this nearly-instantaneous feeling I knew what had happened. Yep...there it was...the back corner of the car had backed right into the door of my pickup. My heart sank. My beautiful 10 yr old pickup with only 46k miles which I kept in immaculate shape had now become the unfortunate victim of bad timing and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I felt bad, and upset of course...at myself and the lady who backed into it. What to do...but shake my head and mumble a few words I wasn't taught in sunday school. I wasn't home but 15 minutes. Within an hour and a halfs' time, my pickup was left at the body shop. Nice vacation...certainly not the ending anyway.
In any case, I was a bit anxious to email the photo of the headstone I found in Brainerd to the relative only to have the email bounce back shortly after sending it off with the attached photo. "Hmmm..." I thought...I had just emailed Marilyn last November. I sent her all of the Lueck information I had at that time, and I still had her previous message which mentioned her brother who was also involved gathering information. Assuming maybe she perhaps changed to a different email address, I google'd her name only to learn she had just passed away just this past May at the age of 80. It was a sad moment...we had hardly known each other only through a few brief email exchanges 6 months earlier.
This caused me to think a bit when I wondered "who is going to gather up her research and continue it...or in the least...preserve it?". I began to think about all of the information, scanned photos and documents I've gathered the past few years. I always keep my family tree software information backed up . But, who knows about it? Who else really knows where it is and how to access it? My wife knows I primarily back everything up, and I scan everything (yes, everything) that was ever in photo or paper form in case any originals are lost, destroyed, etc. What if all 3 of us had been in a fatal accident on our vacation...what relative(s) would know where to access all of the precious time-invested researched information I had gathered and stored/kept? Get the trend here? Imagine all of the time you have invested in items that could easily be forgotten about or simply "tossed away" or forgotten about. Future generations would miss out on much valued history if this were the case. Something to think about!
As for the headstone photo I took...thankfully the relative had previously mentioned a brother by name and I was able to determine an out of state address (thankfully due to the internet and one phone call to my grandmother to verify the state). Perhaps in the future, I may include in my email messages a "go to" person on my behalf who may be able to pickup where I leave off if I ever meet an early demise. I guess one can use their own imagination a bit, but if you take your research and invested time seriously enough, you may certainly want to consider assuring someone else in your family will know how and where your information is so they can pass along what you have acquired...and it will not be gone to waste in your absence.
Meanwhile, I now must go through the 100 still-photos from the reunion as well as the video I took...several gB's worth, and organize it. A lot of work...but worth it all. Almost 100 people/relatives from 14 states attended the reunion...memories that will last a lifetime. As for my pickup...it's should be back in my garage by Fri July 10 hopefully!
It was...a matter of time. Which is exactly what its history held...
Yes, technology is changing history. Enough, it was, that 74 years after it was developed, it is going away. What once held our history in photos is now itself becoming history. This website sponsored by Kodak is dedicated to kodachromes' history. Imagine all of the history and memories we have/had with this film. Funny, I still have my 35mm SLR camera system, and have not used it for years. I guess with all of our new technology and ability to print our own photos, I find it less desireable to purchase film, then take it to a developing location, and purchase the prints accordingly. One nice advantage with digital cameras is you can delete the photos you don't want to save or print. Yes, time is changing. Quick...take a picture of that Kodachrome box...with your digital camera...before it's gone!
Happenings, June 2009...I like summer so far, and, it's PHOTOGRAPH topic-time!
It has certainly been a very dry spring as we transitioned into summer. While the rain is obviously what the fields need, I'm happy I don't have to weed my garden, and all I have to do is water each individual veggie I have. My garden is 28x24 ft and I usually grow green beans, brocolli, brussel sprouts, tomatos, peppers, carrots, and a few other items. As I write this on a Saturday morning (June 6), I'm looking at the weather radar on my PC and there is a lot of green showing up in southern MN. Hopefully, this means a million-dollar shower for many!
The past week I have been going through several headstone photos emailed to me which is a great addition to the cemeteries section of the website! This brings up a few topics related to photographs which I have neglected but wanted to cover in the past.
Photographs are about as important to your genealogy research as are dates and names...at least in my opinion. A photograph of someone is half of the individuals' story. If you are not a photograph afficianado, there are a few simple things you might wish to know about the what's and how's of digital cameras, photos, and photo files. I will attempt here to ever-so-very-briefly cover a few simple items on the topic without getting too technical.
DIGITAL CAMERAS: Face it, most of us likely have a digital camera of some variation. Most cameras save photos in a .JPG/.JPEG format. Some cameras take digital photos in a RAW format. A .JPG format is basically a compressed format which also translates to loss-quality of a photo. The .JPG is great for smaller-sized photos (i.e. posted on websites) and is lower in file/byte-size, which makes for downloading web-base photos faster. All photos you see on this website are .JPG format for instance.
Assuming you are stuck with photos in .JPG format when you download them from your camera, the first thing you may wish to do is convert them to a different format before you go any further (i.e. cropping, auto-adjusting the photo in a viewer program, etc). If your software allows you, save the photo in .TIFF format. STOP you say? What really is the difference between the photos when I look at them? OK, the straight answer is "grainy." The .JPG format will appear to be more grainier-looking, especially if the photo is enlarged or "zoomed-in" on your computer screen. Yes, both formats printed in a 4x6-inch printed photo may not look much different from each other. However, someday, someone may want to utilize these precious photos and enlarge them to a 8x10 print or view on a large computer screen. Once you start enlarging or zooming into a photo, you are essentially "pulling apart" the pixels of the photo and the real (poor) quality of the image begins to become more apparent. If someone wants to crop and pull out a particular individual from a photo, they likely will want to resize the individual's photo to a larger enjoyable image. This will almost certainly begin to show the pixels and graininess of the photos' in a .JPG format. Some photo or graphic editing software may also provide the option allowing you to set the compression factor. This may be located under the PREFERENCES or OPTIONS of your sofware...if at all. Set it to ZERO. Remember...any compression can reduce the overall file size and save you storage space, but, you are sacrificing some quality of the photo in doing so.
FILE SIZE and STORAGE: OK, we've been talking a bit about file formats. Often, a .JPG photo from a digital camera with relatively good resolution (i.e 3 megapixel or higher) will result in a photo-file size of about 1 to 1.5mB in size. After any cropping or auto-adjusting in your photo editing software, this file may be recompressed and result in a smaller file size of around a few hundred kBytes to perhaps half of a mB (i.e. 500kBytes)...about half of the original file-size from your camera. If you convert your downloaded camera photo to .TIF format FIRST, please note the file size will be about 75% higher than the original size, or, about 4mB. Yes, it brings up another subject...storage! That will take a lot of hard-drive or other space to store the photos. However, todays' options for storage is much cheaper. CD's, thumb drives, external backup hard drives, etc., are all options. Yes, it's still some money, but, aren't good quality photos worth the investment? Remember, someday, someone else may want to enjoy your photos when you're gone. Why not leave them with good quality pictures?
PICTURE FILE NAMING CONVENTIONS: OK, I'm going to skip ahead a bit. Let's say you've cropped your image, rotated it, etc., and you're ready to save it. Here's the question...how is someone going to find John Anderson's photo in a collection that has photo filenames like DCSM or MVC or ABC??? Well, now it's time to use a bit of imagination, but, a bit of some common sense.
You can get creative and use your imagination a bit, but, here's a few simple naming conventions I use AND what may be similar to how others name their files. Let's say I have a photo of John Anderson standing in front of a tree...nothing but a simple photo of John taken on his graduation day on June 6, 2009. The name I might use is: anderson_john_graduation_6may2009.tif. Let's say I have another similar photo of John on his graduation day standing behind his graduation cake at his party. I would save the photo as: anderson_john_graduation_2_6may2009.tif. How about a photo of John with his family on graduation day. OK, anderson_john_graduation_family_6may2009.tif. Get the trend here? I always (as much as possible) try to use the surname as the FIRST part of the filename...PERIOD! This way, I can search about a folder chock-full of photos in alphabetical order and pick out the anderson names easier. The remaining portion of the photo gives a brief description of what the photo is, and when. This makes searching for particular files easier when I need to.
If I have a headstone picture of John Doe, I may name the file: doe_john_headstone.tif. Or, if John was married and his wive's maiden name was Ann Johnson, I might name the headstone photo: doe_john_ann_johnson_headstone.tif. Let's say I have a photo of John Doe which I wish to use as a "main" photo in my family tree book, and I wish to name the photo in a manner that indicates the years he lived (in case someone else in the family has the same name a few generations later), I may name the photo: doe_john_b1932_d2009.tif. Or, doe_john_1932_2009.tif. Again, get the trend here? Oh, the underscore...I guess it's a preference of my own, but I have seen it used by many others. I can't say I know exactly why it might be used, but I prefer it as a way to more definatively define the breaks between particular words or information. Some people have challenges in typing, and may save a file (example) like: anderso njohn2009.tif. Again, it's my preference, and it's not uncommon to see others use the same method.
SOFTWARE: OK, I'll admit, for MANY years I have been using Paint Shop Pro 6.02 which imports images from my flatbed scanner, allows special effects on photos, includes editing of light, contast, resize, you name it. I have been using it since the time of Windows 95 and 486 computers. It's the old adage..."it's what I've been using, it works, and I'm used to it." I have been slowly examining other more recent programs and like what I see. Mike at the historical society recently turned me to Googles' free graphics program PICASA-3. I'll admit, it looks good. One feature I like is you can straighten out a crooked photo. Another feature it includes that my old PSP software does not...auto adjust. This comes in handy for photos which turned out a bit on the darker side...brightening them up so they look notably better. Another download I just made the other night is Windows Live Photo Gallery. One note...if you try to download this, you will see the download screen eventually bring up choices of several other items you can download with it. I unchecked everything except the photo gallery (it's all I wanted anyway). One thing that interested me immediately about the sofware was the panoramic feature. I recently visited Riverside and Good Shepard Cemetery in Jackson and I took 6 individual photos from left-to-right during my visit. Trying to stitch photos together in my old software was something I could never figure out and I basically never tried doing it after a few attempts. I must tell you, I'm impressed with this new windows gallery stitching feature for creating panoramic photos. It's quite easy...select the photos from the gallery you wish to stitch together, choose to create the panoramic, and in a few seconds, you have a panoramic picture. Then, crop the "inside" of the photo (to eliminate the uneven borders) and you're done! Here is the page where the photo is located. Here, you can see the individual photos, and the end result. When you click to view the panoramic, you can again click on the photo to zoom in. Try to find the breaks between individual photos...it's amazing how well the panoramic turned out. Best of all, the software is all free!
STORAGE: I always harp on the topic of backing up your data...and photos. I prefer non-mechanical backup media such as a thumb drive or CD/DVD disk as my absolute backup source. I also keep at least one copy outside of my home somewhere. My primary backup is a Seagate FreeAgent backup drive. I back that up with a thumbdrive I keep in my firebox safe. I keep another thumbdrive backup outside my home. Yes, I do need to also utlize some CD or DVD backups as well. Believe me, when you suddenly find that you have lost anything electronically that you have put a lot of time into, it is heart-wrenching. You can decide the price on your priceless photos, but when they're gone, they're gone. A backup isn't such until you have your files located on 2 different media sources. I prefer these 2 sources to be separated. If you get hit by lightning and it sneaks it's way in to your house via the power lines, and it takes out your PC, it may also damage any external backup device physically connected to your PC. Keep that in mind.
ONE MORE ITEM!!!: There is yet one more subject you should be aware of when it comes to photos...which has a bit more to do with including more information about the photo than what is sensibly (not) possible to include in the filename. Let's say you have a group picture of the members of the John Anderson family...John and his wife Ann, and their 5 children. How do you save this photo as a filename with all their names? Well, you don't (or don't want to). Here's what you CAN do. Download a program that utilizes IPTC/XMP data entry. This software essentially blends into your windows operating system and allows you to incorporate/embed information into your photo. In other words, the information you enter will be included with your photo file, but will NOT be included in the actual filename, nor will it be over the photo or under the photo, etc. Where is it? Again, it's embedded within the actual file, but does not affect the saved filename or the actual photo itself. It does allow you to save information about the photo (when it was taken, who took the photo, names of the people in the photo, etc...whatever information you wish to enter. One unique feature is, once you utilize this "method", you can search for photos that have to do with a keyword (you pre-enter the keywords ahead of time using the software). Let's say you have pictures of several relatives buried at a cemetery. You've entered a meta-tag or keyword of SUNSET CEMETERY in the IPTC/XMP software feature. A year later, you want to recall exactly which relatives are buried at this cemetery. Your search becomes easier because you have (already) pre-entered the keywords to search for within the file. So, you're thinking "this is too much software and windows stuff." Here's the easy part. To access the photo information feature, simply right-click over the photo and choose "photo info" or "edit data" (depending on your version or author of your IPTC/XMP software you've installed). In other words, the software essentially resides in the background of your computer and is available via your mouse right-click button when you mouse-over a photo image file. It's really that easy. The only real downside to this additional information/labeling is the time required to enter the additional information. Editing each individual photo with all the information that isn't feasibly possible to include in the actual filename can be time-consuming. However, you can use this method to "copyright" your photo and include your name here and the date it was taken, etc. You decide, but it is a feature that is available and is simple to download and install, and use for that matter. For more information on this topic, check out this article on the topic. In fact, you may wish to poke around the same website for more general information about photos and digital cameras as they relate to genealogy.
PRINTING: A quick visit to this topic. Use good quality photograph paper, ink, and printer. I never bring original photos with me outside the house. I print the scanned images for the photo book I bring with to the family reunion or get-together. If you want to print photos for a more "official" albumn or scrapbook, quality is the key, especially if the intent is to have the albumn around for years to come for others to enjoy.
SCANNING: Again, briefly, scan your photos at the highest resolution you can. Save your scanner images in similar fashion as you would any downloaded photo image you have taken with your camera.
I hope you have learned a few extra things here. Let me know if you have. I have tried to keep this topic short and there is more you can learn yourself on the internet so there's no need for me to get carried away here. I've always been interested in photography, though I've never taken it seriously. A coworker of mine recently purchased a Nikon D300 camera...which is a fabulous camera. However, I can buy at least a few dozen run-of-the-mill digital cameras for the same price, and for what I want to do with most of my genealogy photographs...my camera will do the job. Yes, set your cameras' resolution to the highest setting. Save your files to a .TIF format, backup your files. You'll be glad you did, and future generations will reap the benefits of your hard work and dedication!
Jackson County residents...how can you help?
Occasionally I receive email requests for photos of headstones in Jackson County cemeteries as well as other general information requests. If you live in the area and are willing to occasionally visit a location to take a photo or two, I would be happy to post your email address, or simply refer the requesting party to contact you directly. Please contact me if you are interested!
What needs to be done at the historical society (and how can YOU help)??? The historical society has MANY MANY photos (and documents) in original form that should (need to) be scanned for electronic preservation. These scanned copies could be used for quick retrieval AND can be copied/stored off-site...protected from a fire. However...HOWEVER...someone needs to scan all of these items! It cannot be done by just one or two people (i.e. staff) due to other things that need tending to. Other projects are ongoing as well. Volunteers ARE NEEDED to help with these projects to assist by simply scanning photos. You can help. It is needed. The process is simple...they will show you how. Please stop by or call Mike at the historical society. Yes, you can play a small but important role in helping preserve history in Jackson County!!! A few hours on a Saturday or during the week (if you're retired?) helps. Come in, volunteering a few hours just once without further committment still helps. Call Mike...tell him "I'd like to come in for a few hours on Saturday morning, or on Wednesday afternoon (etc) and do something to help," and he can get setup for you to do when you arrive. You'll be glad you did!
Township maps uploaded
I have neglected the MAPS page since assuming responsibility for this website 2 yrs ago. Individual township maps have now been added. I hope to eventually add more maps as time goes on.
Jackson...the name
Jackson County, established on May 23, 1857, was named after Henry Jackson, the first merchant in St. Paul and a member of the first territorial legislature. You will find Jackson County in the Southwest corner of Minnesota (43.6750 N, 95.1567 W).The county seat is Jackson. The historical society is located in Lakefield.
