Society Saturday: A Walk in the Past with the Fiddyment Family

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Sandra Gardner-Benward

Root Cellar SGS is Back from the HOT summer months.Hopefully everyone got to do some family researching and broke down a brickwall or two.

 Root Cellar SGS's  September Meeting was last Thursday. It was a memorable evening with presenter Christina Richter - " A Walk with David Fiddyment".

Guest Speaker Christina Richter and Program Chair Carolee Jones

If you are from this area, Sacramento and Placer County, you will be familiar with this name Fiddyment......  there is the Fiddyment Farms, Fiddyment fields and especially the Fiddyment Road. ALL are connected with an original family - named for or after the original Fiddyment family in Roseville.

Christina was commissioned to write a book on the Fiddyment family. She researched the Fiddyment family for several years and you can see the results below...........

Our handout was an exert from her book which was very moving. I wanted to share just a couple of paragraphs with you ...........

"The man of 20 is far different from the man of 50, and at 80 he's much different than at any other time in his life. As the pages of time turn, people change and so do communities. Time tends to erase old landmarks, neighborhoods and even entire sections of a place. Much of Roseville has changed and for some, there are only memories where once was a place of happiness.

"One day I had the privilege of taking a walk with David on his old ranch property. The stately homestead brought a smile to his face and his descriptions of the past were animated. Her recalled where the dirt roadways on the ranch used to be, and where the buildings that once housed the life-blood of the Fiddyment family used to stand. As we approached the proud old home he quickly told me everything as though he might suddenly forget."

Christina signing Glenda Gardner Lloyd's newly purchased book 

There was a book signing after the presentation. It went so well that Christina had to go get more books from her car......... good job Christina. (...and thanks to Root Cellar members and guests who support our speakers)


I am sure the Fiddyment family really appreciates all the time, effort and gray cell time you put into this book.

NOTE: Christina has been commissioned to write a book on Placer County. So you know what she will be doing for the next year or two..........  good luck!

Another side note.......  Christina told us that the Roseville Historic Society is considering  purchasing the now run down Fiddyment home and renovating it - turning it into an interactive living historic building. What an ambitious project but well worth the effort. Good Luck on that project..


We are all looking forward to hearing more about both these future projects.

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