Researach in Minneapolis

We are in Minneapolis researching Bud's Grandfather's activities in the YMCA in China.  I am sorry the pictures aren't very good.  When I get home I will try to clean them up.  I just took these pictures with my digital camera and they really didn't work like I had hoped. 

Anyway, some of you may know that Bud's Grandfather served 3 terms in China and Bud found out that they had reports in the archives here at the University of Minnesota.  Bud's cousin, Warren and his wife Mila stopped in Traverse City on Wednesday night and spent the night in our driveway in their RV.  Thursday morning we were up bright and early for our drive here.  The drive across the UP of Michigan was uneventful and long.  They spent all of Friday here in the library reading reports and marking pages they want as copies.  I read a few and the story is interesting.  Maybe I will pass on a few of the little stories. I am sure that Sara would find the reports interesting since she has also been placed in a new culture , trying to find her way around. 

Again, sorry for the picture quality but the first picture is of Warren, Bud's father on a bike in China.  The second picture that is on it's side is a picture of Bud's father and his Uncle Ted.  The picture below is of Warren Sr. He is the one that went to  China with his family.  There were 2 girls and 3 boys in the family, some of them were born in China and the mother of the first 4 children died in China.  Warren Sr. then married her sister and she had a son. 

Here we have the researchers.  The boxes at the end of the table are full of reports, not all of them were written by Warren Sr. but it takes a lot of reading and sorting to find the information they are looking for.  They seemed to enjoy reading and learning of life in China at that time. I chose not to interfere with their research.  The space was limited and the library really wanted them to be careful not to mix up the letters.  They were able to get through about 1/3 of the boxes.  The library isn't open today so they can't go back.  We are leaving Sunday morning and driving back to Michigan.  Warren and Mila are staying on and going back on Monday to try to get through the remainder of the boxes.  It gets a little harder to find pertinent materials in some of the later years because that was the time in which Japan invaded Manchuria and there was a civil war going on in China at that time too.  The communists were starting to take over.  The family left about 1935 and came home for the last time. 

Anyway, that is our weekend activities.  Today we are going over to Bud's cousin's house. He and his family live here in St. Paul.  We are spending some time with the family and doing a little sight seeing here.  We will leave early tomorrow. 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and enjoy spring's arrival.