This is the second day of my week long checklist of spring cleaning tasks for my genealogy archives. Follow #genspringclean on Twitter, and share your updates too.
Tuesday – Shake the rugs for dust and lost things.
We once found a long-lost wedding band hidden in the depths of a flokati rug. Family documents, photos, and treasures have a way of drifting around a house when they are pulled out to show a relative or to be examined more closely. Gather together any items that have misplaced and return to their archival home. Add any others discovered in the search. Photograph or scan any newly found items to share.
A tour of my house showed me just how many things get out of place, and it’s not just socks and umbrellas. Today I pulled out my jewelry drawer and right there, nestled against my favorite strand of pearls was an old-fashioned gold-rimmed brooch with a photo of Aunt Lucile. I enjoy it too much to pack it away in tissue with all the little personal tidbits from Grandma Arline’s trunk. Each time I open my bureau drawer, Aunt Lucy, smiles “Hello” and encourages my efforts to tell Grandma’s story.
So what can I do to insure that the brooch isn’t misplaced?
I am taking a photo of the brooch and writing a little “heirloom history.” I don’t know much about it, just that I found the pin with my grandmother’s things and that I recognize the photo as Aunt Lucy at a very young age.
I will print out a copy of the photo and caption and place it inside Arline’s box of personal artifacts. I am also printing a copy to place in the bottom of the drawer where the pin now lives. Hopefully, if something were to happen to me, whoever cleaned out the drawer would find pin and history and know this was a very special item.
