Once a cousin kindly let me borrow the meeting minutes and annual historian's reports, I scanned all 500 pages. Then I indexed and identified each person as a relative/in-law (by relationship) or as a family friend. Indexing helped me solve several family mysteries!
However, the World War II meeting notes were mostly missing, as were letters written by family members who were in the service during the war. Five years I've tried to find these missing documents, with no luck. I feared they were lost forever.
Until a lucky break last month. I reconnected with a 2d cousin, who mentioned his search for some of the minutes and records I'd scanned. And lo and behold, he has in his possession the missing family-tree minutes and letters from the war years!
We swapped. Now I'm scanning (and indexing) all the new-found minutes and letters from the 1940s. At top, the title page of the scrapbook he lent me. At right, a letter written by my Auntie Dorothy Schwartz exactly 75 years ago this month--when she was a WAC in training, prior to being posted overseas for World War II service.
Lucky, lucky me to be able to assemble a complete set of minutes and letters for the Farkas Family Tree and keep them safe for the next generation (and beyond).
Thanks to Elizabeth O'Neal for the Genealogy Blog Party prompt "As luck would have it" for March.
*One of Mom's first cousins had bound books of meeting minutes and documents and when he and I got together for the first time in decades, and I began to ask him about the family, he casually mentioned having those books. I then volunteered to scan and produce a spiral-bound book. He thought it would take me years. It took less than 3 months, including indexing, because another cousin volunteered to retype anything that was illegible. So remember: Always reach out to cousins and let them know of your interest in anything even vaguely related to family history!
Wow, Marian! I've commented before on how lucky you were that all those family reunions were held, but to now have a complete set of all the notes is fabulous. Congratulations on your new contact!
ReplyDeleteYou're so, so lucky that your family felt it important to record and preserve their history. Not every family does. Do you have any insights into why record-keeping would have bee so important to them?
ReplyDeleteWhy would my mother's family be so diligent about meeting notes? There were a LOT of 1st cousins and when someone couldn't attend, he or she would receive a copy of the minutes within a week or two. Also, they were proud of being so tightly-knit and wanted to reinforce the closeness within the family by recording details like who attended, who got married, who had a baby. But I also believe, from hints in the minutes, that they knew the minutes would survive for years and had inkling of how important these documents would be in the future, connecting descendants to ancestors. Lucky me, they were right!
ReplyDeleteFamily reunions with MINUTES! I thought people just got together to eat. What a wonderful connection you made.
ReplyDeleteWhat luck!! It's great you each could share with the other!
ReplyDeleteWow, Marian! What an incredible treasure! And, I think it's more than just luck. This is a great reminder to keep looking for living cousins, too.
ReplyDeleteAmazing! Glad you found those missing years. You are VERY fortunate to have all those records!
ReplyDeleteThat has to be the most incredible family history find I've ever heard of!
ReplyDeleteMarian, I think you are the LUCKIEST genealogist I've ever known, lol! I know most of it isn't luck, but rather dogged determination to find what you need, but still... wow. Thank you for sharing this story in the March Genealogy Blog Party. I'm always so happy to have you participate! :-)
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