Finished Sorting

The Second Box
Last night after I finished writing, and after I finished laundry, I sucked it in, and finished one more box. I was equally facinated by the pictures and the letters. There were two postcard souvenir folders; one from St. Paul with a post mark of 1914, which I had to show my husband, and another fromWheeling "the leading city of West Virginia post mark of 1916. They are addresses to my Great Grandma, and appear to be from my great Grandfather prior to their marriage. There is no writing on them except for the name and address. There was also a postcard of "Sunday April 14m 1935 Dust Clouds Rolling Over The Prairies" a very interesting post card. The number of postcards almost reminds me of Griffin and Sabine, in their unusual randomness. There were a good handful of postcards that were so personal, that I believe they are actual pictures with a postcard back, if not they are completely random. There was a letter dated 1918 from my great grandfathers brother while he was serving in WWI, he was over there as a minister. I did not at first know who this was, and had to call my mother to find out, she gave me all the scoop. After the war he married a lady from Mexico, and had an illegitimate daughter with the Post Mistress. (There are large envelopes filled with correspondences between the daughter and my Great Grandfather, I have even met the lady). Later that evening I found a letter that had my mothers and fathers name written several times on the envelope, as a girl would practice her name if she were to marry this or that boy. I opened it, and it was a letter from Celia to her mom explaining my mothers marriage, and how it was planned in a week, and no one knew if it was actually going to happen and that is why no one was invited.

The Third Box
This afternoon, my daughter took a very long nap and I ploughed through the last box, I found envelopes filled with pictures with an attemp at labeling. However the are lables like AJ's grandkids and me. I don't know who wrote this so I don't know who me is, I can only hope I can track down the presumably well known AJ, and discover who their kids are. And when I open the envelope there are a hodgepodge of pictures with people I know are neither Me nor AJ's grandkids. I found a report on the family tree, however it starts at Third Child of so and so, obviously missing pages, and it is difficult to follow because the outline structure is not maintained through the document. As I got towards the end I started to feel ill, like I was getting a cough, I am hoping that I have just been over exposed to dust, and will be able to get it out of my system soon, I am deeply afraid that some horrible mold was growing on the pictures and in the next month every one in this house will become muant freeks of one sort or another.

Next Steps
I need to get all of the pictures to a place where I can sort them. I am considering some broad categories like Older than Grandma, during Grandma's youth, During Grandma's Adult pre kids, During my mom's youth, and During my time. I am still trying to decide how much effort I want to make in figuring out who some of these people are, and when the picture was taken. There are a larger number of tintypes than I originaly expected, and they are absolutely un-documented, there are envelopes of negatives that are very well documented, but no pictures with them, but I could get a light box and start matching them up.

Ghosts

I finished the last post, and went down stairs to do laundry, that is how reluctant I am to work on this. But as I was rotating laundry, inspiration struck. Everytime I go through these pictures, my dreams are very disturbed by the prescence of my dead relatives. My mom believes very strongly that she is visited by her mother and grandmother frequently. I like to believe in the possibility of ghosts, but not the reality. If you asked me, "Do you believe in ghosts?" point blank, I would hedge my answer by saying "I believe it is possible that ghosts exist." But just watching the ghost hunter show on Sci Fi, scares the bejebees out of me, because I don't want to ghosts to be real, and who really does. I think I would be ok with the type of haunting that is a recording, no just even writing that upsets me. So....

I am finding that these pictures and letters, in a way, are a type of ghost in my house.

Reluctance

I am completely reluctant to continue to go through the letters, I am unsure as to why this may be, but I find my self just staring at the piles of memories. I did go through the other two boxes very quickly, and one of them is very much my great gandfathers stuff, it contains letters and envelopes with his writing and his thoughts, they are extremely revealing of his mental state a few years prior to his death. But it is not this which keeps me from finishing the task. I think that the task seems overwhelming, even though I tell myself that all I have signed up for is to take care of the pictures. I am now laughing at myself as I write this, because I am asking myself would I rather get the laundry done, sometimes you can get stuff done if you do it instead of something you dislike even more, and I am completely immobile because they are both equal in enormity and dislike.

Some of my new finds

• Pictures of my mom's dad's dad. I only know stories of this man, he was a hard man, but the pictures of him are very appealing. He is very tall and thin and seems engaged with his grandchildren, I find myself liking him on site, and wishing I had met him, and could remember him
• Pictures of my grandmother in her early twenties. She looks like she is a lot of fun, and she looks like she is in some ad. (She is second from the right in both of the attached pictures)
• Postcard from my Celia's dad to her mom, there is no writing on them, just the postcards.