I have hundreds
of digital images that document various aspects of my ancestors’ lives—deeds
reflecting land purchased and sold, wills specifying their wishes regarding
distribution of their possessions, marriage certificates, military service records and applications for pensions. Most of these were scanned from microfilms available through
the Family History Library or downloaded from digital content providers
such as Ancestry; some were digitized from paper copies made at courthouses or
received by mail from governmental agencies. I am grateful for all of these documents as
they have helped me to know my ancestors as real people who lived in a real
place and time.
But perhaps the
document I am most happy to have is an original letter written by my grandfather,
Jasper Jackson Spurlock, to his sister, Sarah Elizabeth (Spurlock) Conville, in
October 1929. A transcription of the letter and digital images of the letter and its envelope can be found
here.
I acquired this
letter from Bettye Lou (Conville) Gleason (daughter of Sarah and my first cousin
once removed) in 1999. It was given to me on the occasion of my first visit to
newly-found cousins in Louisiana, and I was delighted that Bettye Lou had this
letter and gave it to me along with a few other artifacts.
The
letter does not reveal any particularly significant family information. But, for
me, it represents a link to a grandfather I never knew.
52 Weeks of Abundant
Genealogy by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for
each week of 2012) that invite genealogists and others to discuss resources in
the genealogy community including websites, applications, libraries, archives,
genealogical societies and more. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a
genealogy blog, write down your thoughts on your computer, or simply record
them on paper and keep them with your files.
© 2012 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research
I think those documents that we know our ancestors touched - actually put pen to paper - are the most precious for many of us. It's great to find a record in a court book, but the best is to hold in our hands the very paper that our ancestors held in their hands.
ReplyDeleteNancy, I so agree with you on that. Unfortunately in my family there aren't many of those things. One of the things that I most like to see are my ancestors' signatures.
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