It's been a year since my great-grandmother died, and I'm just now getting around to rooting around all the old books that we got from her. Hidden inside many of them were old newspaper articles about WWII, research notes, and discussion questions.
I spent the afternoon amusing myself with my treasure hunt. In one book, I discovered a letter written to Mommom and Poppop from my dad. In it, he told them he loved them and that he was sorry he wasn't corresponding as regularly as he would have liked. He also told them that this would probably be his final letter to them before life began to get busier due to new distractions, referring to the birth of my older brother. Little did he know that he would have 9 more distractions down the road. ;)
Among old books and aging copies Times Magazine I found pictures of my dad when he was in grade school. Also, Mommom kept every single picture we had ever sent her, including the ones of my brothers, sisters, and I when we were just a year old, all the way up to our high school graduation invitations.
Another gem that I came upon, which also happens to be my favorite, was the letter addressed from Germany. It wasn't a lengthy message, but long enough for me to get to know the woman writing it just as well as my great-grandparents did when they read it all those years ago.
You see, my great-grandparents loved to travel! Europe was a well-visited destination for them, and they met all sorts of interesting people. The German woman who sent them this letter told them how excited she was to meet them and help them discover which part of Germany their (and incidentally, my own) ancestors hailed from. Also enclosed in the envelope is what I think was one of their German train tickets.
I could spend hours listening to stories of Mommom and Poppop's travels, or the various jobs that Poppop worked to support them, or their family traditions. If I could, I would pore over old letters and read every single note they ever wrote in the margins of their books.
Family history - learn it!
I spent the afternoon amusing myself with my treasure hunt. In one book, I discovered a letter written to Mommom and Poppop from my dad. In it, he told them he loved them and that he was sorry he wasn't corresponding as regularly as he would have liked. He also told them that this would probably be his final letter to them before life began to get busier due to new distractions, referring to the birth of my older brother. Little did he know that he would have 9 more distractions down the road. ;)
Among old books and aging copies Times Magazine I found pictures of my dad when he was in grade school. Also, Mommom kept every single picture we had ever sent her, including the ones of my brothers, sisters, and I when we were just a year old, all the way up to our high school graduation invitations.
Another gem that I came upon, which also happens to be my favorite, was the letter addressed from Germany. It wasn't a lengthy message, but long enough for me to get to know the woman writing it just as well as my great-grandparents did when they read it all those years ago.
You see, my great-grandparents loved to travel! Europe was a well-visited destination for them, and they met all sorts of interesting people. The German woman who sent them this letter told them how excited she was to meet them and help them discover which part of Germany their (and incidentally, my own) ancestors hailed from. Also enclosed in the envelope is what I think was one of their German train tickets.
I could spend hours listening to stories of Mommom and Poppop's travels, or the various jobs that Poppop worked to support them, or their family traditions. If I could, I would pore over old letters and read every single note they ever wrote in the margins of their books.
Family history - learn it!
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