It’s a common event that most of us go through: cleaning out a household after the death of a parent.
In my case, my dad died in 1996 and my mom followed him in 2013. My brother and I went through her home and threw out some stuff, sold other items and divided the rest.
My mom was not a hoarder but boy howdy did she keep stuff! My brother kept several suitcases of photos, negatives, clippings and other items and he has been going through them, scanning photos and negatives and generally doing a triage on a pile of other items.
He’s been shipping material to me and it’s been an eye-opener. I love family history and what I have fills in gaps and makes the stories I know all the richer.
So now I have many photos from both sides of the family. Some of them are interesting to me because I know who is in the photos, while some are a complete mystery. There was a long rolled up group photo of a WWI military unit. I know several of my ancestors served in that conflict but for the life of me I don’t recognize any of them in this shot.
Nor did I know whose photo was in a small oval frame. The man in the photo was clearly dead – taking photos of the deceased was a common 19th Century habit – but his name and connection to the family is long lost.
I’ve been organizing the material in ring binders – one for my dad and his side and one for my mom and her side.
What I’m going to do with it is to assemble some sort of family history for our grandchildren and two nephews and their families.
Will they have an interest? Who knows? They may chuck what I share with them as quickly as far as I know.
For me I have found that understanding a little about the generations that came before you lends a valuable perspective to your life.
G. Michael Dobbs is the managing editor of Reminder Publishing LLC, and Prime’s local columnist.
