My mother's oldest sister made transition on February 28, 2021, the day before her birthday of March 1st -- she was 95 years old. My brother, Raymond, and I have been going through her home which is any episode of the television series Hoarders -- two floors, an attic and basement filled with STUFF. The condition of the home was so overwhelming that we only went once a week.
The Ancestors pulled us back today. We finally reached "pay dirt" when just the week before we had decided to walk away and have the house emptied and cleaned by professionals.
Our mission was to go through that last closet on the second floor. I remember my aunt taking me to that closet one time, unlocking it, and explaining that she kept it locked because of her fur coats. When we opened it today (8/5/2021), there were her furs, clothes, boxes of shoes and "church lady" hats. We ignored all that and pulled out the boxes that were piled up on the floor. Again a lot of STUFF along with hundreds of pictures.
We sat for awhile, going through some of the pictures but very few were labeled so we decided that we would each take two boxes to our homes to go through. Ecstatic understates how I feel over what I found.
- Pictures of my maternal grandmother as a very young woman
- Pictures of family members and Ancestors who I have never seen but have recorded their lives in my family tree as much as I can -- especially trying to go beyond the basic genealogy information.
- Photocopied images from the Washington Family Bible
- Obituaries of family members
- Photocopy of the Certificate of Marriage for my maternal great grandparents
- My aunt's hand written notes with information on her aunts, uncles, cousins -- some information confirming my research of family connections . Other information is new to me and in many cases will help with "brick walls".
You truly have to go-through what may seem as insurmountable to get to the gold.
