Roberts Roots & Branches

  I have been working to get ready for the 100 th anniversary of this coal mining disaster.  I will be marking every grave with a yellow flower (similar to my Memorial Day tradition), and I will be giving a guided tour through the cemetery following the flag ceremony and program.  For the last month, I have been working with the cemetery and drawing up a map of the burial plots of the miners who were killed.  I have also attended the Lincoln County Historical meetings, hiked up to the mine site with a group, been in discussions regarding the new memorial sign that is in the works, and attended a Kemmerer City Council meeting. There has been so much effort and work for this commemoration program, and I have to give a big shout out to Carol, the president of the Lincoln County Historical Society.  She has been amazing and wonderful to work with.  I will update more about the event and program, afterwards.

   It has been entirely too long since I posted!   I took December off to visit with family, but then 2023 did not start very well.  January and February 2023, I spent in bed with various illnesses, and the month of March was mostly recovering, healing, and trying to catch up on everything that needs to be done in regular life!   Today, I f-i-n-a-l-l-y got the last of everything caught up!  Yay!  August through October I spent doing miscellaneous genealogy while not a “project” I was still quite busy.    November 2022, I finished my grandmother’s book of genealogy, documents, and awards.    I was able to give these tribute books to family for Christmas.    They will be available in a couple of weeks.    November also brought several great finds, thanks to a Facebook post of a resource I was unaware of,    I was able to order 8 death certificates and one birth certificate.    This was a really great break through and I was so excited! December 2022 I spent with family and coaching grand

Ninety-nine years ago today, 136 coalminers reported for work and by 8:30 a.m. after the second trip car carried miners into the mine, there was a terrible explosion.   Residents saw an ominous plume of black smoke coming from the mine entrance.   By noon, over a thousand people gathered at the mine entrance from Kemmerer and Frontier, whose combined population was only about 2,200 people. Ninety-nine years ago today, 99 men lost their lives in the Frontier Mine No. 1 in Frontier, Wyoming.   Ninety-nine families grieved the loss of their loved ones.   The IOOF hall was lined with sheet covered deceased bodies as families came to identify their coal miners.   The Kemmerer City Cemetery and volunteers prepared three mass graves and numerous other gravesites throughout the cemetery.   Dignitaries and officials arrived in the small town.   Investigations began as rescue efforts proved futile.

BIG shout out to everyone who helped and came to the Memorial Day open house. Big shout out to my cousin who traveled from out of state. Big shout out to my sister who stayed the weekend and helped me out. Thank you everyone who attended.  I hope you enjoyed the displays and I hope that you were able to learn more about your family.   Here are some photographs for those who were unable to make it.  We missed you! I had a display table with a funeral guest book, calendars, several scrap books, a Sagebrusher yearbook, and a binder of all of the Roberts Roots & Branches Newsletters I wrote. Books for sale, unidentified photographs, and guest folders. One of the display tables.   Display of photographs, certificates, and documents. Frontier Mine No. 1, 1950 map of the town. Full display. Good food. . . bars & cookies!

I have been busy getting everything ready for Memorial Day weekend.  I have tagged all the flowers for the Roberts family members and for the Frontier Mine No. 1 coal miners.  This is a fun tradition I look forward to every year.  I enjoy paying tribute to our ancestors and to the Frontier Mine No. 1 coal miners who died in 1923.  It is my hope that anyone visiting these graves who have not been in contact with me, will contact me. This year I decided to "permanently" tag and identify all of my heirlooms.  Each tag contains a description of the item, who the item belonged to, and the line of ownership of each item.  All items will then be stored with these tags and labels.  There were a couple of logistics that had to be considered.  I wondered how to label framed photographs without harming the photograph.  I decided to slip the labels into the frame on the outside of the glass.  Another problem I ran into was, how to mark a year book and smaller three ring binder.  I decide

My main motive for moving to Rock Springs is to research, so while looking at new houses, it was the main focus;  where would my library and research room be located.  I have always been very concerned with water, so I have been hesitant to have my research room in a basement.  Here are the photographs of the transformation of the library: Unfortunately, this was the only before picture I took!  Yes, the wall color is purple.   It is pretty, just not for my library walls!  The room is all painted and ready for carpet.   The carpet was installed a couple of days after I finally got internet! Notice the printer on the floor on the left hand side of the photograph.   What do you do with one of your most valuable piece of equipment?   I didn't pack it, I actually kept it with me as it was one of the last things to leave my old house, along with my laptop and monitors.  While I was between homes, the printer  and equipment stayed in the RV until it got too cold and then I moved the prin