My mom grew up in Racine, WI. She had this commemorative book from the first 100 years of the newspaper, released in 1956. Since I am trying to reduce what we have, I reached out to the historical society to see if they wanted it. They had others, but referred me to the library and to the university. The library responded first that they would love to have it.
In the meanwhile, I also came across a few photos of a man. The photos were old and professionally taken. I reached out to the wife of my mom's cousin (who I didn't know but I had just found her email address in my mom's things). I knew the man was related somehow. Turns out, he was the father-in-law of my great-aunt. He lived from 1884-1965, so we are going back some years.
When I shipped off the book to the library, I included the photos and included information about Carl.
I got to thinking about our family history, especially my mom's history. I knew her dad had built homes in their hometown, but I wasn't 100% sure of the addresses. I reached out to my uncle (the sole survivor on my mom's side). He confirmed the addresses.
The next day, he sent me an email with some email correspondence he'd had at the same time I was corresponding with this other family member. The relative he corresponded with was distant.........he was the grandson of the man in the photos and had been the archivist of the historical museum in my mom's hometown!! He has been retired for a number of years and has moved away.
I just thought it was amazing that both my uncle and I were having simultaneous conversations with distant relatives of separate branches at the same time without knowing! (these were relatives of my grandfather's sisters)
Family history is important!! I shared this story with both of my sons. My oldest told me how thankful he was that I was tracking all of this information.
@louannwarren it was fun flipping through the book. It wouldn’t be the same digitally. A few years ago, I wanted to research the past of my son’s home and had to go to the courthouse. It had been a while since I had done so, and this was a different county. I had to ask a few questions and the employees in that department had no idea! They said that only attorneys ever came in and they knew everything they needed.
