This week's rabbit hole is shallow but wide.
My two daughters have visited me the last two weekends and they did some closet exploring.
Linda and I have collected San Diego Padres paraphernalia for the 24 years we had season tickets - almost all of them giveaways - T-shorts, towels, hats, bobble-heads, etc. They were piled in a closet corner, most in their original wraps. Lori dragged them all out and she and her two boys took what they wanted from the pile. The rest are going to Goodwill. There were other clothes, doodads, books, papers, stuff, etc. in bags in the closet. So she separated those into keep, toss or donate piles stored now in the living room. I've already made one trip to Goodwill.
Tami wanted to get all of her stuff out of her closet - her wedding dress, her college clothes and memorabilia, etc. However, to get into the closet, we needed to clear a path in the genealogy cave to get to it. I went through three stacks of paper (each about three feet high, mainly printouts of syllabus articles and periodical articles) just to get to the closet. Tami took some of her stuff home, but left me with a lot of clothes, her softball trophies, and other stuff to trash or giveaway. I kept some of my family history papers but trashed most of them, and there are still three foot high piles remaining that I need to work on.
Also in the closet was stuff that came home with me after my mother died in 2002, including some family history material that I had forgotten about, and three things in particular that I want to keep - my mother's artwork scrapbook from her childhood, my father's scrapbook of newspaper articles and photographs from his bowling career in San Diego, my grandfather's apartment rental records and receipts for the five rental properties he owned from 1950 to 1976, and an artifact from one of my relatives dating back to 1867.
Here is a photograph of the 1867 artifact, a decorative fan, which was in a fan-size paper casing hiding in a See's Candy box on a shelf in the closet:
Inside the bottom of the casing says:
"This fan was given to Frances Auble upon her graduation from Terre Haute, Ind. High School in 1867 & given to Bessie Auble when she graduated from T.H.H.S. in 1900."
On the outside of the casing is a note:
"To Betty V. Carringer 6/1936."
The three recipients are in three generations of David and Sarah (Knapp) Auble descendants! The fan was gifted when all three graduated from high school.
* Frances Auble (1846-1917) is my great-grandaunt, who was the daughter of my 2nd great-grandparents David and Sarah (Knapp) Auble of Terre Haute, Indiana. Frances graduated from Terre Haute High School in 1867.
* Bessie Auble (1881-1969) is my first cousin twice removed, a daughter of William A. and Mary Louise (Thompson) Auble of Chicago, Illinois, and a granddaughter of David and Sarah (Knapp) Auble. Bessie graduated from Terre Haute High School in 1900.
* Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) is my mother, a granddaughter of Charles and Georgianna (Kemp) Auble. Charles Auble was a son of David and Sarah (Knapp) Auble. Betty is a great-granddaughter of David and Sarah (Knapp) Auble. She graduated from San Diego High School in June, 1936.
This has sentimental value to me - the fan itself is over 155 years old. Then I wondered if I should gift it to one of my granddaughters when they graduate from high school, who are 4th great-grandchildren of David and Sarah (Knapp) Auble. If I don't gift it, what will happen to it when my daughters (and grandchildren) clean out my house for the final time?
I will report on my other treasures found in the closet in later posts.
This was a fun rabbit hole to fall down, and there is still stuff in the closet!! What will I find next?
I have enough stuff to throw out, save, or donate to go through - six more rooms of it, plus file cabinets, book cases, and piles of papers to shred or pitch - to fill my trash cans for the next year or more. Does anybody want a whole set of Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedias from the 1980s?
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