Good advise Mr. Hazlett. I've thought about this a few times. Neither of my kids seem to be into this at the moment (20 and 18). I get that "that's nice Mom," when I bring up the subject, so who do I leave it to should I die young? Oh, my that just makes me sad, just like all those lovely photos sitting in antique stores without families, a whole life in history just tossed out. You'd think the guy would at least give you a written documention of what was in the diary wouldn't you? -----Original Message----- From: Charlie Hazlett <charlie@hazlett.net> To: OHGALLIA-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 22:24:15 -0500 Subject: Re: [OHGALLIA-L] Files Missing I had just the opposite happen to me. One day a couple of years ago I got an email, out of the blue, asking if I was related to Hiram Houck, which I am....he was a brother of my g.g.g.grandfather. Seems a friend of the sender had purchased Hiram's diary, with civil war stuff in it, at some antique shop and the sender was curious. I asked if the owner would be interested in selling it, but in a couple of days the sender responded that his friend collected civil war stuff and would be keeping the diary. He didn't even ask what I would be willing to pay, and it would have been more than he paid, no matter what it was, I can assure you of that. So....I never got the diary, don't know who owns it, and have not chance of ever getting it, I suppose. But.......at one time it was the property of some family member who did not value it and let it go. Reminder to all you genealogists........have arrangements made for your collections and research materials when you pass, the person you think might take care if it just might not be as interested as you ! On 3/30/2005, "Martin Cassidy" <cassidym@earthlink.net> wrote: >cheryl enyart wrote: >> They could have made copies from the ones at the library and not stolen them... >> I >> have a problem also with that sort of thing being sold. I talked to a guy who bought things at an estate sale. He knew that a part of the family was bidding against him but he kept going. He tried to sell them on ebay and got no response.. >> I often see that sort of thing and write the seller, I ask him if he has tried to contact the family or search out the family in the area they are from... most of the time they don't care. >> Other times you get a good response and ask for help (if it is from Gallipolis), >> > >There are people out there that are nice in these situations. Here's >what happened to me: > >An "antiquer" (one who spends as much time crawling through antique >shops as we spend doing genealogy) found some old photographs in a store >and bought them because there were names on them. She then hit the >internet looking for relatives, found my website, and then sent them to >me gratis. They were beautiful photos of my great grandfather's family, >originally in boxes stored in a barn and sold off to a dealer in an >estate matter. > >My guess is that if she hadn't found any claimants, she'd try on ebay to >recoup some costs. Her motives weren't greed, they were honorable, and >I am forever indebted to her for her efforts. > > >-- >Marty Cassidy >Seattle, WA USA > > >==== OHGALLIA Mailing List ==== >Check the address you are replying to before sending your message. > ==== OHGALLIA Mailing List ==== Check the address you are replying to before sending your message.