Bins of musty papers, inherited from deceased family members, can be a nuisance to deal with. Yet fascinating historical details and stories may be nestled inside.
Just call me Paper Girl. Somehow, through every branch of my family tree, vintage papers from parents, grandparents, even great-great grandparents, trickled their way to my attic. Well, now to my closet–I’ve downsized. That makes it urgent to use, lose, or carefully store them for the next curious generation.
It certainly requires intense curiosity to want to mess with musty old family papers. Other family members have thrown hands up in despair, eager for me to take custody of anything paper.
Thankfully I’m the right person for that, as I’m finding an abundance of historical clues. And as a writer, my imagination is fueled. I’m seeing wonderful details for articles and books — even plots for historical fiction as well as nonfiction.
It’s also helping me decide what papers to save and organize for my own grown kids and grandchildren, to avoid overwhelming them in the future.
Some papers I can digitize. But in a frenzy to digitize everything, we can lose historical significance. We may only see that significance by physically holding a vintage passport or letter in our hands and noting small details. The feel of the paper, the embossing within it.
One story I wrote for Nostalgia Magazine was sparked by an old letter from my great-grandfather to my grandmother. It’s truly a wonder to hold that original letter in my hands! Legacy of a Walla Walla Pioneer: John Martin Gose (1825-1919) describes my great-grandfather’s journey on the Oregon Trail, including how his wife Hannah was a bit overwhelmed juggling five children in their covered wagon. You may enjoy reading that article to see what I did with the information from the letter, coupled with research I did through ancestry.com and newspapers.com. In case you’re curious about how I figured out how old the children were on the Oregon Trail, see my post Calculating Characters in Family History.
My husband shudders when he opens closets with bins of papers threatening to fall out. But here’s what gold I know those closets contain:
- Letters from a 19-year-old Marine who fought at Iwo Jima, my husband’s father — and a related WW2 scrapbook and diary.
- Documents and photos of a U.S. Consul and Foreign Service officer, working in Embassies around the world, 1920-1943: my paternal grandfather. His father-in-law was also a consul and a reporter who witnessed the Wright Brothers practicing their first flights.
- Letters, diaries, passports, photos and even movie reels from a Seattle couple who lived in the jungles and islands of British India between 1923 and 1933: my maternal grandparents. (See my Jungle Diaries page.)
- Original manuscripts from a science fiction author popular in the 1950s-1960s: my stepdad. (See my 1960s Sci-Fi: Hayden Howard page. )
Feeling overwhelmed by family papers passed down to you? Don’t be in too much of a hurry to toss them or even digitize all of them. There may be gold in them thar bins. If you’ve found interesting historical tidbits, tell me about them! Encourage others to be curious, too.
Laurie
Laurie. Your collection is amazing and you are the right person to keep these treasures safe and share their abundance with the world
Terry
It’s truly a gift to me, Terry, and an honor to have found amazing documents that tell such interesting stories. Thanks for being so encouraging.
Your family must be so glad to have you as the “official archivist”, even if the papers may take up more room than intended in your house…
Our family doesn’t have so many letters/documents like those, but we do have handwritten recipes from our eastern European grandmother, who moved to Canada without knowing any English (or French). These recipes remind me of how hard that must have been, to leave everything you knew behind, and to be in a strange country with a new language. And that she wrote the recipes in English, too, says a lot about her determination to make this country her home.