Chasing the Shadows

Simon Schama wrote, "Historians are left forever chasing shadows, painfully aware of their inability ever to reconstruct a dead world in its completeness however thorough or revealing their documentation. We are doomed to be forever hailing someone who has just gone around the corner and out of earshot."

Family historians can identify strongly with those words, and, yet, we continue the pursuit. And sometimes those shadows we are chasing take form and substance and we can at least sneak a peak into the lives of our ancestors. It's worth the chase.

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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Alice Pyburn

The autograph book of
Lovina Jane Record Carson
Alice Pyburn's entry in Lovina's autograph book.


















Alice Pyburn was born in Missouri, the daughter of A. J. Pyburn and Agnes Pyburn.  In 1870, the Pyburn family was living in Polk, Taylor County, Iowa where Alice's father was listed as a grocer on the 1870 US Census.  By 1875, the Kansas State Census shows the family living in Winfield, Cowley County, KS, where Alice's father was listed as an attorney.   By 1885, the Pyburn family had moved to Arkansas City, Cowley County, KS. After that, I lose track of Alice.

I did find a reference to Alice's father in the June 16, 1881 Winfield Courier.  A. J. Pyburn was one of many who contributed $2.00 to a relief effort for the victims of the Floral Cyclone which had struck the previous Sunday.
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