Hidden clues at home

I spent family day (Fourth of July) with my mother, father, brother, boyfriend and two dogs (well one is my dog; the other, my mom’s). We had a great time. Dad used the grill we got him for father’s day last month to grill the best salmon ever, we watched the shortest fireworks show ever, we spent the longest time trying to get out of a parking lot ever, and mom and I went shopping and found the cutest shoes ever! I also took the time to conduct some scouring around the house for any clues to our family history-the best scouring I’ve ever performed!

It’s not that I discovered anything out of the ordinary or that linked me to a cousin four-times removed. It’s just that there were so many clues, in the home that I spent my high school years in, that I never thought were there, or just never thought to look for.

My mom has a box full of obituaries and old photos next to all of our photo albums-I never thought to look inside of it before. I learned of relatives I never heard of before and was able to add more to the tree. I was even able to go back one more generation-well at least start to. I’m still trying to piece together which side of my mom’s side of the family this one relative is from.

I learned about my late great-Uncle Thomas and his many nicknames, his love for church, his spitting image of my grandfather. I also learned of a sweet family friend who helped the family out after grandma passed.

While I was home I took the opportunity to scan the many obituaries, photos and took photos of my own to chronicle an occasion my family and I spent together. It seems the time always goes by too fast. It will be nice for us to have pictures that will take us back to the memories, and nice for those that come after us to see what our era, in our house was like.