Genealogist Appears onReality TV SeriesIn an interview with GenealogyMagazine.com’s James Pylant, Lisa Cooke talks about "living" in 1867. James Pylant: Do you feel Texas Ranch House gave you an insight in the lives of your own ancestors? Lisa Cooke: Oh, absolutely. I think what it accomplished for me is learning more about the lives of the women in my family. Look at census records and what becomes repetitive is "keeping house." You don’t get as much information from these records about women as you do for men. I was excited to have an opportunity to "get into their shoes." It sounds simple in documents, but it’s a heck of a lot of work. My family today — my extended family — is not very religious. We’re a Christian family, and that’s very important to us. But I’ve found a theme of religious affiliation. My Southern family had written about their faith. Now having lived the life I see a strong faith was a critical part of their survival. JP: How closely do you feel that the experience you had paralleled that of your ancestors, such as the area in which the show was filmed? LC: We were in West Texas, so geographically we were in a different part of Texas. I think what is similar, though, is that we were on a very large piece of land. Neighbors were few and far between, and my guess is we felt the same isolation. I think it paralleled in terms of the domestic duties and elements of survival to make a living. In one episode we came into contact with Comanche Indians, and to the best of our ability — in a current-day situation — we go through the motions of what it would have meant to pioneers. The Native American was blunt about how the [early] Comanches would’ve handled it — killing the family. JP: How long did the project last? LC:We were there for about three months. Two weeks of a "boot camp," as we call it, where you go and learn as much as you can about how to survive out there. JP: "Texas Ranch House" sounds exciting. LC: It was truly once in a lifetime. I’ve researched my family, but I yearned for a closer understanding of the life and culture. Fully immersed and completely removed, we had no contact with the outside world. No television, no electricity. JP: How did your family adjust to the change? LC: As my kids get older they definitely understand why I do research. . . JP: It gives them a perspective, too? LC: It does. I think they had some sense of what they were getting into. We all had varying degrees of enthusiasm, and they were very supportive. JP: Because of the isolation and their dependence upon each other, people were closer as a family. They were around each other all of the time. After it was over, did you feel a closer bond with your family? LC: Definitely. I think we would be considered a close family in general. We enjoyed each other’s company, and I think we were cheering for each other. We were amazed at what we were capable of doing. Some of my favorite times were when we when finished chores. It became unbearably hot in the afternoon, and we would shut the curtains and strip to our petticoats, go into the parlor — the coolest room in the house — and gather our hand sewing. My daughter read aloud from a book from the 1860s. And we couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. JP: You had, I imagine, much work to do — physical work. LC: Every cup of water got hauled by someone. We had to climb the hill, pump water and go back down. It forces you to slow down. You are thankful for everything that goes in your mouth. If we didn’t do what we needed to do, we weren’t going to eat or be comfortable. None of us had felt so purposeful in our lives. . . I wish every teenager in America could go through a situation where they actually felt that worth. JP: Did PBS bring in any other people, except for the Indians? Pseudo neighbors? LC: Yes. The cowboys came and went; we had around seven cowboys on the ranch. But we had the freighter bring our supplies every three weeks. That was always a huge event. They had our mail! It was amazing to get letters every three weeks and to hear from friends and family back home. Ladies from a quilting society in a neighboring town came for an afternoon and visited and quilted. The Buffalo Soldiers bought our cattle. They came in costume and were all reinactors; they knew their history. And we had a Fourth of July party, but I didn’t get to invite people that I knew. Our "neighbors" were people from the TV production. Some were consultants who had taught us during "boot camp," so we had some familiar faces. There’s a scene when one of the ladies, a rancher’s wife, arrives in a wagon. It shows me running to her, and I’m crying. There hadn’t been another adult woman on the ranch. I understood, for my ancestors, what it would’ve meant for to have a visitor. JP: This is fascinating. I can see how it would give you a greater understanding of your ancestors and their surroundings. LC: Definitely, and I hope it will give others some sense of how our ancestors lived. "Texas Ranch House" debuts on PBS, nationwide, on May 1st and 4th. Check your local listing or visit www.pbs.org. |
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