MALVERN, Iowa (KMTV) — She's an avid quilter. Jan Zanders has sewn quilts for great-grandchildren who aren't yet a twinkle in their parents' eyes. For her, connecting across generations is precious.
- Zanders describes herself as a hobbyist historian and genealogist. Her family, like her husband's, settled in Iowa in the 1850s.
- A retired teacher, she has traced back generations; however, discoveries of 'dusty old' negatives set her on a quest to preserve history for her family and others in and around Mills County.
- "If you don't capture it and write it down historically, then these stories are not going to be there and they're marvelous stories. To hear how these different people sacrificed and all the different things they did for our way of life now."
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Iowa's rich farm land suits the red fox - as it does the Zanders. Jan and Larry's families settled here in the 1850s.
"History always gives us insight - knowledge of the past. But also insight to the future," she remarked.
The foundation of what's become an extraordinary effort started with an inherited box of negatives.
"(I) didn't quite know what to do about it. There was probably over 120. Didn't want to take them somewhere to be developed because I was too cheap," Zanders laughed.
This resourceful, now-retired teacher, turned to YouTube to learn. She built her own lab - a place to discover family history.
"This is my husband's great grandmother," she shared of one image.
Zanders has also discovered local history.
"The one I screamed out loud when I opened it up and saw it for the first time?... Probably that one," she said as she opened an image of a bustling downtown Malvern in the 1940s.
So much has changed, but stayed the same. Mulholland Grocery represents that.
"When he looked at it, he thought it was his granddad."
It was, in fact, Tom Mulholland's great-grandfather, the store's founder. Tom owns it today. He had never seen the photo Jan found and digitized.
She believes as much in sharing as preserving.
"A lot of people have commented how it enlightens their knowledge. My knowledge was enlightened a lot about World War II," Zanders explained.
Her husband's grandfather, Jack Steele, took many of the photos in her archives. Steele served in World War I. He and his friends took up their own project during World War II.
"They went around town, taking pictures of daily life, daily people, daily happenings, put it all together and then sent it to the troops," Zanders described.
In the likes of barns and outbuildings, she and other relatives haven't just come across dusty strips and glass negatives, but 8mm film - like a steam engine in 1938 passing through the family's farm.
Just as a train passed during our visit: Another example of what's different but the same.
For the hundreds of things she's digitized, Zanders has more to go through. An exercise in respect for which she wouldn't mind if others were inspired.
"If you don't capture it and write it down historically, then these stories are not going to be there and they're marvelous stories. To hear how these different people sacrificed and all the different things they did for our way of life now."
Some day, Zanders would like to get everything into a book; however, she does post routinely in the Malvern, Iowa Historical Society & Alumni Association Facebook group.