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Re: What do you say? esp for C&U archivists



After all these postings about graduates who are great-great-grandparents, I
feel most inadequate.  Our institution was incorporated in 1962.  Stories
have not yet had time to be embellished.  And, alas, no football team.
Although there is the story that before the GTU was formed (of 6 Protestant
and 3 Catholic seminaries), the only inter-school contact allowed the
faculty and students were football games -- Catholics against the
Protestants.

Lucinda Glenn Rand
Graduate Theological Union
Berkeley, CA

-----Original Message-----
From: Janet Wendt [mailto:janet.wendt@ORST.EDU]
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 2:56 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: FW: What do you say? esp for C&U archivists


Okay, so it is a quiet afternoon here in the Archives, as most of the staff
is gone on Spring Break.  Soon after I came here four years ago, the
Archives got an email request from a patron that wanted to find out more
information on their great-grandfather who was an early graduate of our law
school.  Well, Oregon State University does not have, nor has it ever had a
law school here; it has always been at the University of Oregon at Eugene.
So I referred the message on to my colleague at the U of O, and she later
told me there was no record of him there either.  I wonder what other fibs
this guy told his family over the years! :-)

Then there was the case of the patron who said his father had scored the
winning touchdown in an important football game.  I looked for him and
finally found that he did play on the team, barely mentioned anywhere, and
definitely did NOT score a winning touchdown.  I had to tactfully tell the
family that unfortunately our sources did not record that glorious moment.

And one more:  a family member wanted information on their ancestor that
"started our English Department."  I finally found the ancestor's name
listed in a history of the English Department.  He had been an instructor
for a term or two, but that's about all.  Oh, how we all embellish on our
lives.  :-)

Janet Wendt
Janet M. Wendt, C.A.
Staff Archivist
Oregon State University Archives
94 Kerr Administration Building
Corvallis OR 97331-2103
E-mail: Janet.Wendt@orst.edu
Phone: 541-737-2165
Direct Phone line: 541-737-4050
Fax line: 541-737-0541

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