Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Aunt Geraldine's treasures

I posted a month ago about the death of my dear aunt Geraldine (Seaver) Remley. She was the last living sibling of my father. I asked my cousin, who went to help sort out her things, to keep an eye out for family records, papers, photos, scrapbooks, etc. that Gerry's husband's family did not want to keep. I said that if no one else wants to sort these things out, that I would be happy to do it and share as much as I can on a CDROM at Christmas time.

I got a good look at the collection of papers, photos and other things when I was there for the service on May 4-5. I brought a few inches of stuff home in my suitcase, and my cousin kindly boxed up the rest of it and sent it out via UPS.

I spent part of Monday looking through it, and there are some treasures, including:

  • Gerry kept a diary in 1934, 1935 and 1936 (when she was age 17, 18 and 19).
  • Gerry kept a diary when she came to San Diego in July 1942 to attend my parents wedding.
  • There is a photo album with many black and white small family photos, and then collections in envelopes for each of her sibling's families.
  • There is her Master's thesis.
  • She wrote "pomes" to celebrate notable family birthdays and anniversaries - the papers include rough drafts of several of them
  • There is a gold case with tintype photos of a man and a woman. I have no clue who they are, and need a photo dating expert to help me out. I will post these photos soon.
  • The death certificate and autopsy report of her mother, Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver, who died in 1962.
  • The deed to the Seaver burial plot in Evergreen Cemetery in Leominster MA where Aunt Gerry now rests
I'm sure I will find many more goodies. I spent a part of Monday looking at the photos and scanning papers and photos. The photo album is a magnetic type and many photos are pasted or stuck down or together. I can get the plastic sheet off each page easily. I don't want to destroy them, but I want to save them digitally. I could scan the whole page (perhaps?) or take digital pictures of each photo or a group of photos. Any thoughts?

1 comment:

Judith Richards Shubert said...

Enjoyed this post, Randy. I have a few old albums with the magnetic pages and plastic coverings, too. Luckily, most of the pictures fell out or I was able to peel them away without damage. My difficulty has been in getting the black paper off of little photos that have been glued down in old scrapbooks. I really need a good method to get it off without damage to the pictures.

Your posts on your family Christmas albums are great, too. You have such wonderful ideas and projects to keep your family history alive.