For motivation, encouragement, and much more, a tip of the Sicilian coppola hat to Kevin Cessna-Buscemi. Grazie per l’ispirazione e molto altro ancora — und ohne dich hätte ich es nicht geschafft.
Information Sourcing
This type of historical/genealogical project could not be accomplished efficiently without large, relational databases. Here, credit for data repositories and record-search capability is owed to Ancestry (ancestry.com), FamilySearch (familysearch.org), and the Find a Grave website (findagrave.com) and its many contributors. Family Tree Maker (stand-alone software) also makes possible relationship calculations that could not otherwise be performed as easily.
Primary record sourcing was done with the following resources, among others: U.S. Census records (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950) from the National Archives and Records Administration; the Iowa State Census; birth, death, and marriage records from Iowa and other states; Ellis Island records; U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes; the IAGenWeb Project; and the Iowa Digital Library, a resource of the University of Iowa Libraries.
Individuals and Institutions
For help in detailing band member lives, special thanks to Cinda Bidwell Beardsley for supplying an original print of the photo and the opportunity to examine Newell Bidwell’s piccolo; to Inga Hookstra for invaluable background on Ralph Langley’s family and life; to “the Bandholz kids” (Charlotte, Rita, Marjean, and Chuck) for info on Charles Bandholz; to Bill Hoffman, for photos regarding John Mehrens; to Mike Westphal for the 1912 band photo; to Barbara Wheeler for photos and information on Earl Smith; and to Carol Sievers Kellett for insight into the life of Hans “Hugh” Sievers and for generously sharing family photos.
Thanks also to Kate Anzalone, Carrie Fountain, Fred Gies, Nancy Hill, Catherine Mackay, Dan Mielke, Paul Mugge, Ron A. Mugge, Wayne Mugge, Joe Shafer, Janice Shinn, Doug Taron, and Michael Wittrock.
For assistance with instrument identification, curators at the National Music Museum(1) (Dwight Vaught, director) have offered helpful commentary, and additional credit goes to Peggy Vagts, Eileen Yarrison, and Jerry Bertrand.
Reference librarians at the Minnesota Historical Society’s Gale Family Library have also provided assistance.
Technical Production
Photo and graphics production was performed with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. The website was designed in the open-source WordPress environment and is powered by GoDaddy.
(1) As noted in the “Musical Issues” section, the National Music Museum is a world-renowned museum and research institution with collections numbering more than 15,000 musical instruments and related objects as well as curatorial expertise in a wide variety of string, woodwind, keyboard, and brass instruments. The museum is located in Vermillion, South Dakota, and is a partnership between an independent, nonprofit organization and the University of South Dakota, through which it also offers a master’s degree program. https://www.nmmusd.org.