A few weeks ago, we lost my Great Aunt Helen...she was 98 years old. Several years ago when I was doing a lot of research on our family tree, I spent a lot of time on the phone with her. She told me that she had a lot of old photos and papers that she would leave for me one day. I also spent a great deal of time with my Grandmother before she passed away going through tons of old pictures and albums. She told me all of the stories and who everyone was in each photo, so I have everything written down, labeled and can easily pick out everyone related to me through my great-great-great-grandparents.
So last week we had to go to Aunt Helen's house to pick up some of the family heirlooms and go through the attic - I can't even begin to explain the family treasures I found in that attic!
2 beautiful trunks that came over from England, lots of things from my great-uncle's time in WWII, a funny little scrapbook of little trinkets my Grandmother kept in high school completely labeled in her own handwriting....never knew my Grandmother was a scrapper!!
My Great Grandmother's sewing box, along with half finished crocheted projects, hundreds of postcards from their travels, letters from the war, tin photos along with full labeled albums in great condition, framed photos of my great-great grandparents, a family bible that came from England with everyone's names and birthdates handwritten in the front cover by my GGG-Grandmother...etc. There is so much more and it was extremely overwhelming for someone so in to genealogy to say the least!
I spent days cleaning the dust off of everything, going through it all and organizing...and I still have 2 trunks to go through and clean up in my garage. When I got to the last box I had to go through, I got goosebumps when I realized it was the one that my Aunt Helen had packed up for me. At the top of the box was a big manila envelope and when I opened it, I burst in to tears...the first thing I discovered was my Great-Great Grandfather's wallet! Still full of membership cards, id, his business cards - below that was 3 of his passports all full from his travels! Next was his naturalization papers with his exact street address in England as well as his parents full names and birthdates!!!!
At this point I nearly fell right out of my chair and had to take a few deep breaths. You see, when I was working for so long on the family tree - and when I say I was working on it, besides researching on-line, I was literally going to graveyards, going in to the county offices in Paterson doing research - I was REALLY in to it. When I got as far as my Great-Great Grandfather, William J. Penney, I got a bit obsessed with him in particular because I couldn't figure out when he came here, what port he came in to or where he was from England. My Grandmother told me stories about him and said I was a lot like him. I was so curious about him and was so frustrated that I couldn't find anything, that I stopped working on it for a while. So to find all of the information I had been searching for in this one envelope - well lets just say it took me almost an hour to see clearly through my tears.
I am now a bit desperate to go visit my friend Tracie in England and take a drive to find their home if it's still there!
So that's what I've been up to lately...I'll take more pictures and fill you on on the rest of the treasures I come across when I get in to those trunks in the garage!
jen

