I returned from my trip to Minnesota to visit my grandma with even more to blog about than before. I went out there with a goal to take note of and steps to preserve the family heirlooms, photos, and documents in my grandma's hands. It turned out to be a bit more work than I thought it would be. It was all literally buried. I went through just about every nook and cranny of her basement apartment, 27 years worth of stuff, looking for family photos and turning up all sorts of interesting things (along with a lot of garbage like bank statements from the 80's). In the end it was very rewarding. I was able to pull together a lot of her original photos some from the mid 1800's, as well as funeral cards, obituaries, my grandpa's honorable discharge, marriage certificates and notices, birth records, and much more. A GOLD MINE! I then set to work to scan it all and then put it in a binder so it will all be in one place (Grandma wasn't ready to let it out of her hands, yet). My goal is to share the stuff I found here in the months to come. It's going to take me awhile, I came away with about 600 images between scans and photos (I was able to use my new table top tripod) I took of heirlooms that my aunt and grandma have. I also came away with a stack of old (legal size) family group sheets to go through.In addition to family history items I also found a stash of personal history items for myself. My grandma had a lot of my family photos that my mother doesn't even have copies of as well as original art work from when I was 2 years old on up.
If any of you have older relatives I would strongly encourage going through their stuff with them and I learned ALL their stuff, pictures and documents were stuffed everywhere! I came across a few items that only have meaning when you know their history and that history will be lost unless someone takes the steps to record and preserve it.
I've got my work cut out for me. Lots of pictures, documents, and information to come!
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