We loose so much of our family history this way, such a waste.... Glenn ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nancy Trice" <trice@vci.net> To: <KYHOPKIN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 11:50 PM Subject: [KYHOPKIN] FW: Cleaning Mother's House -- off topic > Sent to me by a friend on this list [thanks C]. I shudder to think of > how many times this has happened. I had a friend who lived in Webster > Co who died about 5 yrs ago and this is exactly what happened to her > things. I bought some of her many books at the auction but the papers > etc were just tossed... she had no children and her only sibling, a > sister, died about a year after she did. She had no interest in > genealogy and neither did her children. Such a waste. > > nt > > > > Cleaning Mother's House > > It has been nearly a year since fictional genealogist Barbara passed > away. Her daughter Charlene reflects upon that year in a letter to her > friend Karen. Charlene truly has been busy. Barbara is probably > rolling > over in her grave. > > Karen, > As usual, my cards are late. It has been a busy year. We spent much of > the year settling up Mother's estate. The house sold well, but > cleaning > it took longer than we expected. You are probably the only person who > did not know Mother was a genealogy buff. She told practically every > human she encountered. I'm convinced that genealogy "nut" was the most > accurate phrase. The stuff was all over the house. The inheritance > would > have been enough to pay for my new Mercedes had she not insisted on > spending money on that blasted hobby. I don't know why she couldn't be > more like Tom's mother. Nadine spends her day doing needlepoint and > watching reruns of 50s television shows. Tom just does not realize how > lucky he is, but men never do. My mother had to run off to cemeteries > and courthouses. She even went to a conference in Davenport, Iowa, > last > year! Can you imagine? Davenport, Iowa! After she got back, she was so > excited about all that she had learned and all the fun she had. She > was > planning on going to another one in California this year. Well the > grim > reaper took care of that. Because of my promotion to head of knick > knack > sales at Garbageforless.com, I had not been home for several years. I > was appalled to learn that Mother had converted my old bedroom into > her > family history "headquarters." My shelves of Teen Beat and other > magazines documenting my adolescence had been replaced with old family > photographs, copies of old documents, and something called family > group > sheets. She even got rid of the pants I wore to my first junior high > dance. I cried at the thought. > I could not bear to go in the room and be reminded that my childhood > had > been stripped from me and replaced with an obsession with the past. I > told the children that if they would clean the room and prepare the > items for the garage (should I say "garbage"?) sale they could have > the > proceeds. I learned what true entrepreneurs they are. Kenny stripped > Mother's hard drive in under ten minutes. I kept hearing him say > "GedCom > is GedGone . . . GedCom is GedGone . . ." I have no idea what it > meant, > but the computer fetched a good price. Before he unplugged the > computer, > he erased all Mom's floppy disks and downloaded public domain games. > He > sold these at a nominal price. Susan took the old photographs to a > flea > market and was able to sell many of them. Some special labels had to > be > taken off and we had to take them out of protective envelopes. Mother > had written the names on the back of many of them. At least none of > those pictures of depressing old dead people had our last name written > on them. I don't want to be associated with such sour people. Mother > had > some type of old plat book -- whatever that is. Kenny tore out the > pages > individually and sold them separately on Ebay. It was so clever. His > dad > said he got much more than if he had left the book in one piece. > Susan didn't tear the bibles apart though. I thought that showed > tremendously good sense. She's learning that not everything can be > marketed in the same way. The 1790 bible brought her a good penny, but > she couldn't get the one from 1900 to bring more than fifty cents. She > donated it to a local church, and here is where I am so proud of her. > We > can write if off as a charitable deduction. Someone had written what > they had paid for the bible on the back cover. Susan converted that to > 2001 dollars and will use that for our tax deduction amount. I've > already enrolled Susan in tax lawyer summer camp this coming August. > There was some old large certificate of written on heavy paper. The > silly thing wasn't even in English, so why would Mother keep it? Kenny > used the other side to keep track of the things he had sold. Waste > not, > want not. When we were finished we put the paper in the recycling bin. > The kids put an old wedding dress from the 1870s in the washer to get > the stains out. It was terribly filthy. The worthless thing didn't > even > survive the extra long cycle and the half-gallon of bleach. It's > doubtful we can even use it for cleaning rags. The dress was in some > kind of old trunk. I'm not certain what it was for, but it had a name > stenciled on the front in huge letters along with the name of a town. > Susan gave it a good coating of red paint and sold it as a toy box. > The > filing cabinets were emptied of their contents, as were the three > shelves of binders. Kenny got the bright idea to shred the paper and > sell it in bags as New Year's confetti. The file folders were too > heavy > to shred. > The baby did not react well to any of this. She cried and fussed > almost > the entire time. Kenny thought she wanted tea, which made no sense to > me > at all. As she cried, it sounded like she was saying "family tee." She > can't even talk yet and I think Kenny was hearing things. The baby > does > look exactly like my mother though, it's the oddest thing. The fussing > didn't stop until she spit up an entire bottle of strained prunes on > my > junior high jeans, which we did find in the basement. They were ruined > -- it was the one real loss. Now my past has really been taken from me > -- magazines and all. > Charlene > > Whether you have a child like Charlene or not, have you thought about > what might happen to your genealogy collection upon your demise? > > > > > > ==== KYHOPKIN Mailing List ==== > Hopkins County Homepage: http://www.rootsweb.com/~kyhopkin/ > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.303 / Virus Database: 164 - Release Date: 11/24/01