Heritage Album: Detective Work

 I've spent a few evenings working on my heritage project, and I must say I feel like a detective! Accuracy is really important to me, so I'm trying to be very careful about identifying people, places, and dates. It's very easy to make mistakes!

The more I work on this project, the more amazed I am by my grandma's genealogy work. In her younger days, nobody got more done than Grandma. She prided herself on being efficient, and I can see that skill really paid off in her genealogy research. But while Grandma and I talked about it frequently, I wish I had spent more time with her working on her genealogy. Especially in her older years, I should have taken a more active role in helping her keep up with her filing. But I guess she knew that I'd take care of it when it fell to me, and I'm so glad she entrusted me to be the keeper of her books.


I have no idea how she navigated her books without tabs. I now have tabs along the sides and the tops of each binder.

As I started putting her books in order (the photo above is one of four humongous binders I now have -- two for each side of the family -- plus several smaller "supplementary info" binders), I have had a sense that those binders contained all of the answers to my questions about my family history. And so far, that has largely proven to be the case.


So as I've approached all of the unidentified photos, I've been hopeful that -- like a detective -- I'll eventually solve these mysteries. Many of these pictures have obviously been glued to poster boards at various family reunions, and in removing them they somehow all ended up dumped together -- both sides of the family mixed. I didn't even realize they were so mixed up until I started studying them more closely.

So time and again, I've gone back to the big tub of genealogy stuff looking for any clue that might help me. Each time I delve into it, I "see" different things, even though the contents of the tub have not changed. This week, I decided to look at these books which were written by my grandma's cousin about their family's history (how cool is that?). I hadn't paid much attention to them, assuming that since they were written by a cousin they might not be all that relevant. (That was a mistake in judgment: Back then, cousins tended to spend a lot of time together so they shared many experiences.) Although I'm not working on that side of the family right now, I opened the books and was surprised at what I found.

 

As I looked through the books I discovered pictures that I know I do not have but would like to add to my album, such as my great grandpa and great grandma on their wedding day.

This is one of the few photos I've seen of my great-great paternal grandfather.

But even better -- for where I am right now in the process -- these books have helped me identify some of the "unknown" pictures I'm working on. As I thumbed through the book, I immediately noticed that many of the pictures were similar to the photos I've been trying to identify.

Check this out! Now I can identify the girls in the white dresses and the little girl on the horse.

This is enormously helpful in at least sorting the photos into the correct side of the family! I feel very, very lucky to have this information. AND IT HAS BEEN THERE ALL ALONG, just waiting for me to find it. :)

As I've worked my way through Grandma's boxes, I've also found some pretty special memorabilia, such as this wedding certificate for my paternal great grandparents. I assume this document found its way to Grandma since she was also the keeper of the family history for Grandpa's family.

It feels great to put that certificate safely with the photos in my album -- I can't really explain it other than to say that making these connections gives me an "all is right with the world" feeling.

 Other very special items include my grandparents' marriage records...

...and my dad's baby book! There is so much information in this little pamphlet that I can't help but feel they're clues my grandma has left for me. 

So with more questions answered I've been able to make a few more pages for my scrapbook, this one with photos from my grandpa's childhood. I am pretty sure that I'll have more once I finish identifying the pile of unknown pictures.

I found a great picture of my grandpa in his late 20's or early 30's and enlarged it.

And I've made two pages using pictures from my dad's childhood, with many more to come.

Progress is slow but steady, and I feel good about the work I've done so far in putting this album together. It's great to see a clearer picture of my family's story emerging through this process, and I know Grandma would be thrilled to see this album coming together. I truly owe her a debt of gratitude.

jp