As a librarian at the State Historical Society of North Dakota, Stephanie Baltzer Kom works in the archives division. A lot of what she does has to do with preservation and access. Her job is to make sure that the publication collections are properly preserved, repaired, and virtually accessible for genealogists and other researchers.
Kom’s interest in personal histories began with her own. “My grandmother had a giant binder that her sister put together [that held] family records. I read through a lot of it because it contained old letters and I could learn so much about my family and extended family that way.”
Still Photograph: Vernon Baltzer, circa 1960s. Courtesy Stephanie Baltzer Kom. Image may be subject to copyright laws.
It was through the binder, family photos, and her grandfather’s home movies that Kom discovered meaningful insights into her past. “Vernon Baltzer was my grandfather and I never met him. He died right before I was born. He filmed the home movies that I eventually inherited. Even though he’s not in the films much, because he was behind the camera, there is one reel he appears in. And there are many relatives I am able to see at a time in their lives when they were younger, before I knew them. In some cases, like with my grandfather, I was never able to meet them. The home movies are important because it’s a different experience watching people in motion. You can learn so much through the films.”
Watch this oral history video, Homespun Histories: Vernon Baltzer Family Films. Here Stephanie Kom discusses her family history and the value home movies bring to her personal heritage and our broader shared past.
Kom was fortunate to know her grandmother, Barbara Greitl Baltzer (1918-1997), who appears in many of the home movies. “My grandmother Barb was a great and highly intelligent lady. She was born in McClusky, North Dakota in 1918 and grew up with nine brothers and sisters in Napoleon. She played basketball and skipped two grades, graduating at 16. She served in the Women's Army Corps and was stationed in Missouri. I don't know how she met my grandpa, but I think it must have been around town in Napoleon after the war. Her sister told a story that Barb was dating a sheriff from Brown County, South Dakota when she met grandpa, and that the sheriff was preferred by Barb's family.
Still photograph: Barbara Greitl Baltzer, Women’s Army Corps, circa 1940s. Courtesy Stephanie Baltzer Kom. Image may be subject to copyright laws.
Barb was mainly a homemaker and the rock for her six kids, but she also worked at the Post Office in Bismarck for many years. She was active up to her death--swimming at the Y and bowling. She loved to garden and had amazing flowers in the front yard of the house. Barb was a strong lady who was never afraid to speak her mind. She was also a most excellent grandmother. We spent a lot of time at her house. She would make Sunday lunches every week for the whole family and we would spend a few hours there eating her great cooking and hanging out with our aunts, uncles and cousins. It was at her house that I discovered our family story--the large binder of letters and genealogical materials. Barb kept that and my grandpa's [genealogy] research in the playroom and I spent a lot of time reading it.”
Watch the memorial video Kom created to honor her grandmother here.
Kom recalled, “The [home movie] collection was in rough shape when I got it from my dad. There was mildew on a lot of the boxes that were around the reels and growing on some of the reels. [Once they’d been cleaned] I put them in archival boxes and made sure that the labeling went with them. And then stored everything in a closet up on a shelf. The room has some temperature control so that hopefully they'll last for a very long time.
And then the digital part of it, I now have a hard drive with all the digitized reels on it. I also have a copy on my computer. I subscribe to a service that backs up my computer [onto the cloud]. So it's living out there rather than just in my house. And then I've also uploaded them all to YouTube. I’ve shared the films that way with relatives and friends.
My family was really excited about it when I sent the [YouTube] link out and they actually told some other people and one person they told was the gentleman that helped get grandpa into the Aviation Hall of Fame. So yeah, they were all very excited about getting to see these films.”
Portrait Photograph: Vernon Baltzer, 1939. Courtesy Stephanie Baltzer Kom. Image may be subject to copyright.
The eldest of five children, Vernon Baltzer (1921-1980) grew up on a farm in Logan County, North Dakota, along with two brothers and two sisters.
In 1943 he began his service for the U.S. military. He married Barbara Greitl in 1947 in Jamestown, North Dakota. After making a home and family in Napoleon, they eventually moved to Bismarck, North Dakota.
Baltzer began documenting his experiences with an 8mm film camera while in the military and continued filming people and places the remainder of his life.
Before Vernon Baltzer passed, he began research on his family tree, saving publications on his German-Russian heritage. He was a second generation American. His grandparents were from Germany and Germans from Russia (Bessarabia and Glueckstal).
Kom is the daughter of Terry and Donna Baltzer. Terry is the fourth son of Vernon and Barb Baltzer. She and her family reside in Bismarck, North Dakota. Continuing in her grandparents’ footsteps, Kom keeps her family’s legacy alive through saving and sharing their history.
The Vernon Baltzer Family Films collection will be available for viewing on the Internet Archive in the near future. To get updates on all things Al Larvick Fund, subscribe to our e-newsletters here.
This article and video was created from a 2019 interview recorded at the State Historical Society of North Dakota as part of the Al Larvick Fund’s oral history program, Homespun Histories. The program’s mission is to contextualize regional films through capturing related stories through the filmmaker and/or their collection custodian(s). Stephanie Baltzer Kom is a 2015 Al Larvick North Dakota Grant recipient. She continues to participate in Home Movie Day events hosted by the State Historical Society of North Dakota and the Al Larvick Fund. The North Dakota based grants are provided by the Al Larvick Fund in collaboration with The MediaPreserve. To learn more about her collection visit her grant recipient page here.
Still Photograph: Vernon Baltzer (second in from right) and colleagues, circa 1970s. Courtesy Stephanie Baltzer Kom. Image may be subject to copyright laws.