After posting on my favourite surname - TERWILLIGER - on Surname Saturday, I decided I simply had to do "something" about my greatgrandfather's Souvenir Album...
A few years ago, I took photos of each of the pages before putting it away carefully - it's quite old and was badly cared for in the past. Currently it's experiencing benign neglect - at least it's dry, coolish, and put safely away from any moisture.
That made 266 images saved on my computer (and backed up of course), so that I wouldn't need to handle the Album. Each photo has now been looked at, labelled with descriptions, so I know what I might need to see. BUT, it's now very clear: I need to do a complete Inventory of this Album, item by item, page by page, photo by photo, dinner menu by dinner menu, travel ticket by ticket, etc.
An inventory. Details. Why? Here's why:
There are several full pages of people's signatures (see left), and several pages of their calling cards, pages and pages of engagement cards and marriage invitations, various newspaper articles, obituaries (some not dated nor sourced). I did quick research on many names, and kept saying "wow, really? hmm. interesting." All those engagement cards and marriage invitations should be identified in detail and put on the web for their descendants to find - don't you think? A daunting task - there are quite a few.
Plus a page of political buttons (see on the bottom left). Who are some of those people? As a Canadian I have no idea of most of them - although of course I do recognize several. But there are various political, memorial and other types of buttons or coins, needing to be identified and put into context.
And numerous pages - covered with small circles or shapes of what look like symbols of organizations... which organizations or societies are they?? (see on right) He also glued down other similar shapes to fill in other pages - with no particular order or plan, as far as I can determine. They need to be identified as well.
There's a Valentine love poem from my greatgrandfather to his soon-to-be wife (adorably bad!), several post cards and notes from relatives and colleagues. All of those souveniers should be transcribed, obviously.
There are Roselle Musical Society presentations (my grandmother and greatgrandmother sang, played piano), and other recital programmes. There are dinner and luncheon menus in complete detail - amazing to me that he saved all these!! Glorious menus, I must say! And pages of travel tickets to/from various places in NY State and Bermuda and ...
Oh my. There's a lot. It all deserves a place all of its own, with all the detail I can muster from the record as well as in research - and with handling the pages as little as possible. I do wish I could remove a few items and photos to look them over, or see if there's anything written on the back. But this glue he used in the late 1800s - it's as permanent as it can be! Amazing stuff - there's no way to peek behind anything.
A winter project, I think. Right now, it's too warm to be handling old papers (29 C.). I'm quite excited actually. I've been wondering for several years what on earth I could do with this wonderful Album of my greatgrandfather, James Grover "Grove" TERWILLIGER.
10 comments:
What a treasure and what a task.
I'll be interested to see how you decide to share the contents and, of course, am anxious to hear the stories as they unfold.
I'm thinking I may need to have a separate blog specifically for his Souvenir Album, Jill. There are so many pages, and so many discrete items... it's a bit daunting, actually. Do I start at the beginning where there are many engagement/marriage cards in their own small envelopes? Or, at the end, where there are obituaries and other newspaper articles (sometimes unsourced/labeled) -? And then of course, there's my Grandmother Terwilliger's so-called Memoirs (she skirted the truth quite a bit)... they should be transcribed as well... Sounds like a TERWILLIGER blog, doesn't it? Thanks for visiting my spanking new blog, by the way, and commenting. I appreciate!!
Jill's right! A true treasure. The joy of blogging is that you can nibble at the elephant. One page at a time.
What a treat to have you blogging, Celia!
Thanks Susan for your encouragement! Ohhhh, it feels like a bit of an elephant right now... As for writing - I have always loved writing: I write short stories, finished a few never-to-be-published/bad first novels, newsletters, articles, handouts, etc. both in my past jobs and presently in retirement. Now, I'll add "blog" to the list. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
How exciting this must be for you Celia! What an amazing genealogical treasure! I can't believe all the items your great-grandfather saved. I'm intrigued by the calling cards and page of signatures too. Very cool!
Jana, Thanks for your encouraging comments! I really think I have to do a separate blog for this... or, maybe one day a week, do a page. Hmmm. Cheers!
Your blog post was listed on today's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2012/08/follow-fridayfab-finds-for-august-17.html
My, this is a treasure! It will be interesting to see these items up close. Good luck with your big project!
Thanks for commenting - I always appreciate the effort people take to comment! This Album is truly a treasure, Kathy, so I want to give it the respect it deserves! But it is still too hot for sweaty hands to be touching it, yet. But soon - maybe one evening I'll just do one page, to get started, carefully, with dry hands.
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