Cousins are keepers of TREASURE!

I have a niece-in-law through my ex-husband's family line, who is about 10 years older than my eldest daughter, i.e., they're first cousins. They're very close, have even lived together at various times. I see her now and then, maybe two or three times a year, friendly, sociable, busy, travels a lot.

At one of my granddaughters' birthday, her 13th [milestones racing by], we began talking about my favourite topic, genealogy. Oh, you guessed that already?? Yes, this niece-in-law is one of those on all sides of the family who actually reads and comments on my genealogy posts, particularly those 52 Ancestors/52 Weeks blogs about the LEWIS-RICE line, her line. I try to make certain that I feature ancestors on both sides of my kids' family lines.  Fairness rules.

Chatting along, I wondered aloud how disappointing it was that my ex had no photos of his mother when she was younger, or her siblings, and none of his father, grandparents, etc. on that side. And I wondered if she might have seen any, since her father did photography as a profession for some years...? Just wondering...

"Sure, I have lots of them.  His father's whole family, all the kids. There's one with Isaac and all the kids. Yeah.  And one of Jack & Bill's parents, and..."

I gasped and stared at her. I was so excited I almost spilled my wine [a very nice Malbec, from S.America].

"Oh. I guess you didn't know, eh?"  She made a face. "We need to get together then. I've got all sorts of photos, letters, journals, stuff. In a trunk. I don't know why I didn't think of it before...  Hmmm, I thought you had already seen these."  

My eldest daughter chimed in that she wanted to see these too, and would be very happy to help. All cell phones were pulled out, calendars consulted, a date picked.

We have a date in a little over a week, for the three of us to go digging in this trunk, sort out what we find, and I'll be taking bundles back home to scan here.

I suspect my scanner will be running every day possible until I get all these treasures copied and organized on my computer. Won't it be fun to be able to go through them, see all those new-to-me people?  And new to my own 4 kids as well. Treasures.

I teach beginners to always take note of the eldest child or eldest daughter in families when looking for momentos or photographs - they often hold the family treasures... and here I'd forgotten to check with this daughter of the eldest son (my ex was his younger brother).

Yup, she has the treasures. And soon, I will have copies. Can't wait. I'm so excited!!