Genealogy

This  is the oldest family photo I have and the most precious....this is a photo of my great great grandmother taken sometime during the Civil War or right afterwords.....The writing on the back is my great grandfathers, Henry Wagner...Frank Hunt was his brother-in-law...it reads "This picture belonged to Frank Hunt, his mothers picture. He died the 7th of Nov. from a fall at Morrels ice house west end of Ottumwa, Ia. He lived about 3 minute after the fall". My grandfather said the photo had been in Franks pocket at the time of his death. Doing more research I found out that the lady is Perthina Reddin..she looks rather worn and not a little sad...I haven't been able to go back into her family yet..her husband name was Enoch Hunt.....and I know he was born in Indiana...

Genealogy is fun and very  interesting...there are so many great online programs and so much information now, its almost overwhelming. Ancestry.com is a good place to start..you can find out so very much about  your family, even ship manifests..I know one of my ancestors was an original Tea party participant and fought the Revolutionary war..was wounded....
I only wish the large box of tintypes and old photos hadn't been given to the thrift shop when my grandfather passed away....but was lucky enough to get  a few of the old photos....there were hundreds...

A fun project is to make a journal jar...I made and sold quite a few of these several years ago on Ebay...below is an example....

Inside were 100 questions to help in journaling so you or a loved one could write their own story for future generations....questions such as Describe your best Christmas memory"..What was your first job? or who was your favorite teacher in elementary school?..I only wish Perthina had done that...can you imagine?