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Visiting Historical Sites, Living History Museums, and Folk Parks

Kilaned Cottage at Glencomcille Folk Park represented how my ancestors might have lived in Ireland, circa 1850s. Have you ever visited a heritage park, living history museum, or folk park where your ancestors lived? If not, I recommend you add it to your next genealogy trip to gain some incredible insight into what their lives, homes, occupations, and traditions were like. In the past year, I've visited several of these sites and came away with a much better understanding of where my ancestors lived, what they saw or did in their everyday lives, even what kinds of tools they used or clothing they might have worn. I find it's one thing to read in books about life during the times they lived, but it's quite another to walk through a cottage, sidle up to a sheep, step on a ship, or peek into a hedge school replica to bring that book learning to life.   Western New York & Canada  On my visit last year to Western New York and St. Catharines, Ontario, to research my Schiltz, ...
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How's It Going? An Archive Closet Update

Image: Rawpixel.
 

Well, well, well. Here we are in August 2024, and I should take stock of where I am with my "archive closet" clean up. 

To "fess up," I dropped this task back in the spring. I was getting weighed down by the sheer volume of what I must go through. But there is some good news!

First, I have gotten rid of several boxes of correspondence that Mom kept. Mom saved every single card or letter that we sent her over the years. And she kept some of the birthday cards that we received as children. So, I'm talking about birthday cards from the late 1950s-early 1960s! It felt wrong to get rid of items that might have some significance to my brothers, so I asked each of them if they wanted the items that either were sent to them, or the items that they had sent to Mom. To my surprise, they did want them! So, as I went through the boxes, I sorted the items into piles for each brother, and when I got through all the boxes, I mailed them off to them. Anything else, such as old Christmas cards, etc., I discarded.

Second, I came across a baby book that my sister, Sharon, had meant to give to her friend who had just had a baby. For some reason, Sharon never sent it before she passed away in 1994, and Mom had kept the book. Again, it seemed wrong to not find Sharon's friend and send the book on to its rightful owner. I reached out to a well-connected former teacher in the area, and within 5 minutes she had an address for me. Sharon's friend called me when she received the package, and it was lovely to speak to her after all these years.

V-Mail correspondence between my Grandmother and her friend are now in the collection of The National WWII Museum in New Orleans.
 

Third, I found a home for several V-mail letters that my grandmother received from her friend Katherine Kurutz, an Army nurse, during WWII. These three letters are now in the collection of The National WWII Museum in New Orleans—they accept donations of artifacts. I hope that the letters will be of use to future generations, and so grateful that they have found a new home.

I still have a long way to go to thin out my "archive," but at least one goal has been met: I had enough floor space to put a filing cabinet in the closet and redo our family filing! Huzzah!

Until next time...I'm planning on getting back in closet this week!

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© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2024. All rights reserved.

 

To read about Grandma's V-Mail letters, begin here.

To find out more about donating artifacts to The National WWII Museum, see here.

 


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  1. Sandra RobertsonAugust 15, 2024 at 3:43 PM

    You did well! So glad that you were able to find loving homes for many items that your Mother felt were important to her.

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    1. Nancy Gilbride CaseyAugust 15, 2024 at 7:08 PM

      Hey Sandra, thanks for reading! Well, it was a start. Long way to go. But we just keep pressing on!

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  2. Marian B. WoodAugust 17, 2024 at 6:28 AM

    You are doing a great job of sharing family history while preserving it for other researchers in the future! An inspiration for folks to just start somewhere and curate your collection a little at a time.

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    1. Nancy Gilbride CaseyAugust 17, 2024 at 11:20 AM

      Thanks, Marian. That is truly the only way it's going to get done. I do hope it inspires a few folk. As the old saying goes, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."

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