I am about halfway through the boxes on my FIRST sorting. The plan is to go through the boxes once, getting everything sorted into appropriate family categories. THEN I can go through each family individually, and begin organizing everything by generation and type of media.
One of the first things I saw when I began opening boxes to get an idea of which might belong to what family, was this old leather child's train-case. The hinges are rusty, and it took a few minutes of careful prying to get it opened safely. It is filled with scraps of carefully folded fabric, each one smaller than a handkerchief. This was tucked within a box of Cole family items, and based on its apparent age and what else was stored with it, I would guess this likely belonged to my grandmother, Mary Elizabeth (Betty) Cole/Gates.
Initially I had thought it was a box of fabric scraps for making dolly clothes, but after looking through the fabric more closely I believe this to be a time capsule. People used to save scraps from memorable clothing items to remember special events. The blue fabric here closely resembles the fabric from my grandmother's prom photo, and the pieces of lace have all been carefully taken from something; the stitch-marks are still visible!
From the Shaw side, I want to share the lady who started tracing our genealogy before I was born. This is my great-aunt Anne. Born
Annie Evelina White, she married
Edward Valdemar Chorpenning Shaw in 1956. Edward was my grandfather
Charles Shaw's brother.
I met Great Aunt Anne once, in the summer of 1981. Mummy had wanted to visit with her because she was interested in our family genealogy; and we visited her, my Aunt Marcy, (Mummy's best friend in the navy; adopted in love, and my eponym) and my Aunt Polly's family in a whirlwind "East Coast Tour." She lived with an enormous black dog, and we slept on the floor under a train table in her hobby room... she said it had been her husband's obsession. I remember my grandfather having a train room as well, so it must have run in the family!
While we were there, she offered to take us on a tour of New Hampshire. We piled into her station wagon, and she ordered us to "hang on tight, 'cause the traffic's a bit rough 'round here!" I remember my father white-knuckling the oh-crap bar on her car as we FLEW around corners and through red lights, narrowly missing traffic as if our very lives depended on going FAST! We saw Plymouth Rock, (it was a rock... under a roof... VERY boring to a young girl) the Mayflower II, (I remember her showing me the ballast rocks... they were far more interesting than an old smelly boat!) a creepy waxworks museum, and I know we saw many other things in a single afternoon, but the rest is a blur. She was loud, fast, and I thought she was the most fiercely independent lady I'd ever met. After this visit she mailed Mummy several LARGE envelopes of hand-written genealogy charts, and a small mountain of personal notes she had been researching. I found the envelopes, and my fingers are positively itching to unfold the charts I haven't seen since I was a little girl.
And because today is National Nurse's Day, here are some photos from the
Payson line.
Olga Keehnel/Johnson and her daughter
Doris Johnson/Payson served as nurses for the North Hudson Red Cross during WWII. These are my children's great grandmother, and great-great grandmother.
While I never met either of them, I have been told that Olga was "stern, but lovely" and that Doris was "an amazing mother" by Aunt Dolores Payson/Dahl; Doris' daughter.
My plan had been to post photos once a week... it may end up being at LEAST once a week for awhile, because I can't help but share! There's so much here, and I want everyone to see it!
PLEASE share this site with other family members! This is not just my
history, it's all of ours. Family history is meant for sharing, so if
you have a cousin, aunt, brother... anyone who may be interested, please
share the link so they too can learn about our collective family
histories!
More will be posted, SOON!
