[or-roots] My old photo story

[Denise Merritt]

I had to add a happier story.  In years past I went around asking relatives 
about old photos.  Some showed me what they had and some kept them secret! 
<Grin>  Eventually I received a book of old photos but many weren't labeled 
(this was on my maternal grandmother's side).

When a cousin on my maternal grandFATHER's side died another cousin called 
me to come look at the photos he'd received to send on to the cousin in the 
Will.  There were MANY and some were labeled.  Both sides of the family were 
from the Roseburg area.  In looking over the photos I found one that 
appeared in the other photo book (unlabeled).  It was a photo of my direct 
ancestor on my maternal grandMOTHER's side.  It was labeled so now I knew 
who was in the photo in my possession!  Apparently they had been friends and 
so had a photo of an ancestor on my OTHER side of the family labeled in the 
second collection.

Sad to say (for me) the photos were "willed" to a cousin who has now died 
and I can't seem to find their descendants to learn what happened to the 
collection.  All the same, I felt blessed to have seen them and identified 
another of my own unlabeled collection.

I have a small group of photos of my one branch that were the only clues to 
the family history when I first began.  They were labeled with things like 
"your sister, Myrtle and a son"; "your brother Jim and his first wife, 
Mary"; your brother Jim's children (3 in the photo).  With those scant clues 
I did track down the siblings in Kansas & Illinois & Missouri.  Just this 
week I've found a third cousin who had no photos of the family so I'm able 
to send him scanned photos of his ancestors.  I'm always trying to share so 
I have gotten my warm holiday feelings from this latest connection. <Grin>

So...my moral is...keep all old photos and keep looking for those cousins.

Denise
Descendant of AGEE, ATTERBURY, BLAKELY, CHESTER, COLLARD, CRAWFORD, GAGE, 
GILLIAM, KENT, LANDRETH, LIVINGSTON, MATTHEWS, SHAFF, SHOEMAKER, SIMMONS, & 
THORNTON lines in Oregon (many of those were in Coos, Jackson Polk or 
Douglas Counties)