BECAUSE I don't have enough to do, and I'm cursed with an enormous lack of focus. Like right now, I should be wrapping up things here at work, preparing for tomorrow, heading home to fix dinner, taking a walk, cleaning house and continuing to prepare for my son's graduation party.
INSTEAD, I am obsessing over someone else's long lost relatives. I already spend about 15 hours a week on Ancestry.com (I didn't mention that in my list above, because I've already used it as an excuse not to do the above.) researching family trees on both my husband's and my sides of the family.
It all started about two years ago when I was given a stack of pictures that belonged, I thought, to my husband's grandmother. While a few had a year, and some had "mother" or a first name scratched on the back, most were left blank. I have been piecing together the clues ever since. Turns out they were actually my husband's grandfather's mother's and grandmother's (are you still with me here?) pictures. The ones I've identified, I've shared with relatives and with strangers searching their roots on Ancestry.com. I have gotten a lot of satisfaction from the joy the images bring. Definitely, it has been a very rewarding hobby.
But, now, I think I might be a little out of control.
Yesterday, I randomly spent my lunch hour at a local antique store. While thumbing through an old box of pictures, I found the lovely ladies above. I've always wondered how old family photos wind up in these stores. Old photo studio duplicates? Maybe misplaced in something else and thrown out accidently? Or, perhaps, because 99% of them are unmarked, people just don't know who they are and, thus, don't place a value on them?
That's the one that really makes me sad. These images of past generations now forgotten by the next. Certainly there has to be someone out there looking for them? The picture had three names on the bottom, two with last names. Maybe I could find someone on Ancestry.com that would be interested?
I do a quick search through other booths, but sadly, this is the only image with any names in the whole store. (I contemplated the one that said, "Father, 1923" and found myself saying out loud, "yeah, that's just nuts". So I did put that one back).
After work last night, I did a search of the two ladies, Bessie and Lola Isett. Turns out they were sisters, from Ohio. Within a few hours I was able to find and make contact with three Ancestry.com members who were thrilled to have the image. I think we were all surprised at how something so random could brighten all of our days. As one member said, "You may have turned me on to a new hobby".
And I'm thinkin' why not? Imagine if everyone who is into genealogy could be on the look out for images like this? And when they discover them, grab them up, post them online, and everyone could benefit.
A completely wonderful, random act of kindness that hardly costs anything, and best yet, these previous generations can be seen and cherished by the families who had lost them.
ONE MORE THING, here is the lecture part of today's post.
PLEASE, PEOPLE....if nothing else, put FULL NAMES and dates on the back of your pictures.
