2009 - What A Year! 2010 - Bring It ON!

Looking back at 2009, I am amazed by the opportunities that came my way. If you had told me a year ago that I would pan for gold in the place my great-great-grandfather did, find a cousin named Gayle Christison (my maiden name), speak to 200 people at the Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium about my great-great-grandfather and Cash Creek (Cache Creek), and keep finding new developments in the cattle rustling story, I probably would have said, "Yeah, right."

These opportunities would not come without people. I am so grateful to each of you who read my blog and to you whose paths have crossed with mine on Twitter and Facebook. I appreciate librarians, archivists, and regular people who listen to my story and answer my questions, pointing me in the direction I need to go.

New Year's resolutions have never held much interest to me. Oh, I can set them and fail within two weeks, so I tend not to even come up with resolutions. But as I think about the opportunities that have surfaced in the past few years, I realize I do have some attributes I try to live out in genealogy and life. These are beneficial when opportunities arise and I hope to become better at each in the years to come.

In 2010, I resolve to:

Be curious and see where the next computer click, phone call, e-mail, turn in the road will take me.

Be courageous and follow up on what I find. Make the phone call, set the date, make the drive, meet new people.

Be faithful and stay on track. Write the book, do the research, enter the data.

Be true to myself. Write the way I write, research the way I research, and don't compare myself to others.

Be open to new opportunities, new people, new ideas.

Be courteous to others and respect their stories. Remember that the pioneers I research and write about have family today who may not know the whole story and who have their own family stories.

Some attributes are easier for me than others: curious is easy, courageous - not so much. But all of them are essential in what I love to do - research and writing. I would love to make a resolution that the book will be written in 2010, but I won't. The book will be done when the time is right.

Here is to the New Year - 2010 - Bring it ON!

(This post was written for the 87th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy, hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene.)

The Christison Musicians

(poster by fM)

Prospecting is in my Christison blood, but there is another talent that runs through the Christison family – musical ability. It seems that those who weren’t bitten by the gold bug honed their musical talent. And, in two cases, without music (and the U.S. Air Force) two marriages may never have happened.

Ernest Christison never seemed to care much about prospecting; he got into cattle ranching at an early age. But he could fiddle a tune! He played for dances and gatherings in Fairplay, Salida and Howard. Ernest’s granddaughter, Betty Regnier, remembers him playing “Devil’s Dream” on the fiddle when she was a little girl.

Ernest wasn’t the only one of Wilburn’s children to play an instrument. His younger brother, John Christison, was a professional musician—a piano player. According to one source, he joined the circus as a musician and married a trapeze artist! John is listed as a musician in the 1885 Colorado Census and was the leader of the Aspen City Orchestra in 1889. By the time of his death in 1890 at the age of 31, John was the leader of the Wheeler Opera House Orchestra.

(United States Air Force photograph)

Unites States Air Force Academy Band - Ken Christison right corner

The music talents of the next generation are unknown to me; however, the Christison musical talent came through loud and clear when my Dad, Kenneth Christison, Jr., began playing the trombone in school in Los Molinos, California. Ken Christison joined the Air Force in 1961 and was stationed at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. He played in the Maxwell Air Force Band. He also met my mother, Connie Revelle, in Montgomery and, after they were married, it’s where I was born. Dad was stationed at the Air Force Academy in 1966, bringing him to the state of Colorado where 3 generations of his family had lived before him.

(United States Air Force photograph)

The Falconaires

As a bandsman of the United States Air Force Academy Band, Dad played trombone in the Marching Band, Symphony and, for a year or two, the Falconaires, a jazz ensemble. Dad played on the Falconaires album, “The Snake Creek Diversion Project,” a respected jazz and funk recording. Here’s a YouTube video I found with the recording of “Memphis Soul Stew.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGqmBqz3UaI

Every day the Air Force Academy Band played breakfast, noon, and supper formations, marching the Air Force Academy cadets to their meals. The band also performed concerts throughout the year at the Academy. My favorites were the Christmas concerts. Dad was stationed at the Air Force Academy for eighteen years. He was also the instrument repairman, which made him indispensable to the band.

Growing up with music, I learned to play the flute, piano, and guitar in elementary school. My brother, Brian, played the trumpet and guitar, too. I played flute in the band through Junior High and one year in High School. That was 1981, the year Douglas County High School Marching Band marched in the Rose Parade. After marching five miles through Pasadena, I really didn’t have any desire to march again!

(Douglas County News, Castle Rock, Colorado)

The Range Riders

My musical interests turned in another direction a couple of weeks after the Rose Parade when a friend asked me to play guitar in a country-western band he was starting with his cousin. Ron Gresham, his cousin John Gresham, and I became The Range Riders. We played for a few community gatherings and a dance or two, but we found we were better as a gospel group than a dance band. And John and I have been making music ever since!

Today we play in a bluegrass gospel group that leads the worship service at church once a month. I’ve added a banjo and hammered dulcimer to my musical instrument collection. I can play both a little. I’m a pretty good rhythm guitar player and a decent harmony singer. John plays mandolin and sings, too. We enjoy playing old country western songs with John’s father, who plays guitar. And the Christison and Gresham music talent hasn’t ended with us—I enjoy playing guitar in the contemporary praise group at church with my daughter, Kate, who plays the bass and my son, Kenny, who plays guitar.

This post was written for the 83rd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy hosted by Janet Iles at Janet the Researcher.