Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

An unexpected gift

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davebealetterI’m still visiting my family and today, I stopped by to see my aunt (my father’s sister). She delighted me by giving me a photo of she and my father, taken in 1934, when they were 5 and 6 years old. Adorable. I’m very grateful for it.

Then she blew me away by pulling out a 36-page handwritten letter (though at least two pages are missing) from my grandfather to my grandmother, written about a month before they were married in 1927. My grandfather, David Adams, wanted to reveal his life’s story to his sweetheart in hopes that she would still want to marry him.

How tantalizing is that for a genealogy enthusiast? As I’ve written here, I’ve been frustrated in my efforts to know more about my grandparents. I didn’t know why my grandfather’s family moved from Kentucky to Washington in the first decade of the 20th century or why his parents were estranged. I’m hoping to learn the answers (at least from his perspective) in the letter. Maybe I’ll also learn why it is that these estranged parents were buried next to one another.

I’ve not yet read the letter. I have a long flight ahead of me on Saturday and I think I’m going to wait until I have that uninterrupted time to dig into it and see what mysteries are solved and what facts are revealed. I am so grateful to my aunt for sharing it with me and promised to scan it (guess what I’ll be buying!) and return the original to her, though she promised I’ll be able to keep the original one day.

I noticed that on the back of the last sheet, my grandfather wrote, “Destroy the manuscript, will you please?” I am so happy that my grandmother ignored that request!

Preserving photos and documents

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BeaAdamscroppedMy father was recently sent a packet of aging newspaper clippings and some photographs by a cousin. She was cleaning out her mother’s home after a downsizing (her mother is my grandfather’s sister) and thought my father would enjoy the clippings and photos about his parents, Dave and Bea Adams. There were also a couple of clippings about my father, Gene Adams.

They were delightful to look at and read. My grandfather had published a small-town weekly newspaper (The Franklin County Graphic) and several of the clippings were humorous essays by him, about my grandmother. Real treasures. There were also photographs, probably taken by my grandfather who was also the newspaper’s photographer, of my grandmother all dolled up. I knew her as very casual dresser, so they were really fun to see. I’ve included one with this post–I don’t know why there’s a veil attached to her hat.

Anyway, I wanted to treat these treasures properly. The newspaper clippings are yellowing and getting fragile. They were mushed together with the photos in an envelope. Fortunately, I have a few resources that I’d purchased to help me make sure these items get the proper treatment. They include:

Thanks for these resources, I’ve done the following with my treasures:

  • I’ve put the newspaper clippings into an archival folder, separated from the photos, and will have them photocopied onto archival paper. (They’re too big for my scanner.) They’re safe in an archival box.
  • I’ve put the photographs into a labeled archival envelope in an archival box.

This is making me want to get my hands on more documents and photos. My mother has a box of them in her closet that I think I’ll bring home with me next time I visit.

 

Solved! The mystery of my grandfather’s birthplace

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daveadamsbirthannouncementI’ve been frustrated by a little mystery surrounding the birth of my grandfather, David Adams. I knew from the Social Security Death Index that he was born on November 12, 1904. According to census records, he was born in Oregon. In the 1900 census, the family was living in Sacramento, Kentucky. In the 1910 census they were Quinault, Washington, where my great grandfather, Elmer Adams, worked as a farmer.

I visited my parents earlier this month and I asked my father why the family moved from Kentucky to Washington. He said it was never discussed, so he had no idea. When I told him that the census records indicated that his father had been born in Oregon, he was surprised. He had never known the family to live in Oregon. We guessed that perhaps they traveled to the big city of Portland for the birth. That gave me an idea: Why not search for a birth announcement in the Portland newspaper?

Today, I finally had a chance to do that. Thanks to the State Research Guide for Oregon put out by Family Tree Magazine, I was easily able to find the Historic Oregon Newspapers website. A search on the words “Elmer Adams” within five words of one another, limited to newspapers published in 1904, garnered seven results. Only one of those articles was published after November 12. A click later, I saw it: a birth announcement for a son born to Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Adams on November 12. It appeared in the November 30 edition of the Portland, Oregon, Daily Journal. The two-line announcement also gave a street address. Apparently, they were living in Portland when they first moved west! (My grandfather’s sister, Dora, was born in Kentucky in 1902, so the move west must have taken place  a year or two before my grandfather’s birth.)

Without a place of birth, I’d been unable to request a birth certificate for my grandfather. But now, knowing he was born in Portland, I visited the state archives’ website and was able to order his birth certificate. This should arrive in just a few days.

I’m very excited! It’s been bothering me that I didn’t know where my grandfather was born and I can’t wait to get my hands on his birth certificate.

 

Asking the right questions

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I’m in Walla Walla, Washington, visiting my parents. Last winter, I wrote about how excited I was to be able to interview them about family lore. Unfortunately on that visit, they weren’t remembering a whole lot of information. (Though I was able to share some information with them, which was nice.)

This trip, I’ve decided to focus on their own parents. My father’s mother’s family and my mother’s father’s family are pretty well documented. But I realize I know less about my maternal grandmother’s family and my paternal grandfather’s family. So that’s what I’m going to focus on.

This year, I’m going to use my Livescribe pen to record our interviews, which I have high hopes will come in handy down the road.

Last year I was disappointed at the results of my family-history-related conversations with my parents. This year, I’m going to try to come up with specific questions that might spark some helpful memories. Winging it wasn’t a great strategy last time.

As an aside, if your parents are not yet elderly, I encourage you to get as much information from them as you can while their memories are good. How I regret not having these conversations 10 or 20 years ago!