Hi MAR In my opinion I would say there is a fair chance that some of the items have been purloined from records offices or repositories where security was not so high a priority a while back However much more are simply handed down indentures, deeds etc that have either been thrown out or are being disposed of by relatives who do not see any value in keeping them except the monetary value How someone could sell their grandfathers medals is beyond me but it happens When a close relation of mine died, his wifes family got there first and literally burnt all my relatives papers of which there were many, anything else of value disappeared with that side as the will left all to his wife, I doubt if this is an isolated case I have e bay alert me to any posted items that contain certain words (names, places etc) this has enabled me to buy a few items that have either helped in my research or were items directly linked to my relatives My favourite is a ring box which came from my g.grandfathers jewellers shop in East Retford, Notts, due to the style and hence likely year, it most likely passed through his hands at some point (or at least I like to feel it may have :-) if I remember correctly it cost 2 pounds It can be frustrating at times, I missed out on a pocket watch that my g.grandfather engraved his name in the back (dated 1879) but at least I have a good picture of it Best wishes Nivard Ovington, in Cornwall (UK) > Thanks for this link, Wendy. It would be interesting to know how so many > of these documents end up on the market instead of in the County Archives > and one can't help wondering how many are documents that 'disappeared' > from the archives in the days, not so long ago, when readers were trusted > to go in and out without any security or identification. > MAR in France.
snip <How someone could sell their grandfathers medals is beyond me but it happens -------------------------------- I am currently disposing of the estate of an elderly lady who has died and left all her estate to charity having no living relatives. I will have to sell the medals of her late father to benefit the charities. This is an example of how things pass out of families. I also have the family birth certificates etc going back a couple of generations. If I ever get the chance to research it I should love to hand these over to a relative who is interested in family history. David Pearce No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.10.16/914 - Release Date: 23/07/2007 19:45