Sunday, August 31, 2008

Show and Tell - the treasures

This Carnival of Genealogy is supposed to be themed Show and Tell - an heirloom, a special photo, a valuable document, or a significant person that is a very special part of your family history.

I have shared so much on this blog that it is difficult to find something that I haven't shared, and to decide which heirloom, document, photograph or ancestor to share. After 2,180 posts, you've seen almost everything I have to show and tell! Actually, that's not true, but a lot of it is really boring stuff.

One of my very first posts on Randy's Musings (18 April 2006) was titled Treasures in the Closet. In this post, I described only some of the treasure trove found in my mother's house - the collection of artifacts and papers from four generations of my Carringer, Smith and Auble ancestors.

A photograph? Probably the most precious to me is the Union Case photographs of Isaac and Lucretia (Smith) Seaver - shown in Is this Isaac and Lucretia (Smith) Seaver? A close second is the photograph of the house in San Diego that my great-grandparents Carringer built and I grew up in - posted in The house I grew up in.

A document? Probably the most precious (and irreplaceable) to me is the marriage certificate of Henry Austin and Della (Smith) Carringer shown in Family Photographs - Post 16: Carringer/Smith Marriage Certificate. Or Della (Smith) Carringer's rough draft of a letter to her cousin, which I posted about in Letters from home - post 19. Or Della's Journal from 1929, which I transcribed over all 52 weeks during 2007.

An heirloom? I'm kind of short on heirlooms. Perhaps the pages from the Smith Family Bible, and the Carringer Family Bible? The rack of tarnished silver spoons from the Knapp and Auble family of Newton, NJ and Terre Haute, IN? I haven't posted about that, other than in Treasures in the Closet.

A significant person or favorite ancestor? I've shared about Isaac Seaver, Isaac Buck, Thomas Richmond, Della (Smith) Carringer, Abigail (Vaux) Smith, Devier J. Smith, Lyle L. Carringer, Emily (Auble) Carringer and a number of others who are special to me. All of my ancestors are significant to me. Especially my mother, Betty Virginia Carringer, and father, Frederick Walton Seaver.

I have a special gold "Champion Blog Reader" star available for anyone who visits each of my links in this post. I can tell who reads what, you know. Heh heh. Please let me know if you qualify...

3 comments:

Amy Coffin, MLIS said...

Excellent Show and Tell! I read 'em all. You can check your Sitemeter for SE Texas. That's me!

You may have told all these stories before, but they were new to me. Thanks for sharing them again.

Untangled Family Roots said...

The stories were new to me too. We seem to have a lot in common. I don't have many heirlooms either, very few photos, but they are all precious, and of course all my ancestors are special to me as well.

I just love the way you shared them all because it is very hard to choose or too come up with new material when you write so much.

Amy McDaniel said...

Such a wonderful collection of family history you have, Randy. I will continue searching for living cousins in hopes of finding one with your dedication to ancestors as people with interesting lives. Thank you for sharing your family's past with us.