I'm anxious to learn more about my distant cousin, Laura Ingalls Wilder

As a Christmas present I received an Amazon gift card. It was good timing because I'd just learned of this new book edited by Pamela Smith Hill. At Amazon we read: "Hidden away since the 1930s, Laura Ingalls Wilder's never-before- published autobiography reveals the true stories of her pioneering life." 

When I was a third grade student in the class of Mrs. Jean Nossaman at E. E. Morrison School in Great Bend, KS it was the Fall of 1955 and I was just seven years old. Our teacher read to us each day. We were lucky that she read several Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. I was just the right age to engage my imagination and live those adventures as I heard them. I thought at the time that those tales had been written "back in the old days". I didn't realize until years later that "Little House on the Prairie" had just been published in 1935. That was relatively recent, as I look back now. 

I'm so glad I have those memories. It will be fun to recall those times in my childhood as I venture through my new book and learn more of Laura's life in her own words. 

This chart shows my cousin connection to Laura. I wish I could share this with my mother. I doubt that she knew Laura Ingalls Wilder was her cousin.