Fishing For History

 

One of the reasons I write about my family history or post parts of it online in various formats, is because doing so is very much like fishing. You never know what or who might come along and read one of those posts and take a bite of my bait. A few days ago I received a message on one of these places from someone who was seeking information about my great great grandfather's sister, a person I have written about on this blog in the distant past. In subsequent correspondences, I learned that this person had found a personal photo album of this sister in a box of things that were bought at an estate auction and was currently in some sort of place that resales old things. Rather than see the pictures plucked from the album and sold one at a time, she bought the entire album and was looking for a home for it.

I of course volunteered to be that home but as of this writing, I have yet to hear back. Even if she decides to hold onto it or rehome it with someone else, I hope she will at least give me some contact information of who that is so I can pay for a coping all the pictures in it. For reference, this album's original creator is on the branch of my family tree that contains my most well researched line and also my shortest line. Her father is John Kuck, who immigrated from Germany and who I have written posts on here dozens of times about various parts of his life. The album creator however was born from his second wife where as I descend from his first wife who died very young along with five of her children in a diphtheria epidemic and whom I don't know anything about when she came to America or who her parents are.

The current owner of the album did send me a few pictures she took of a few of the pages of it which were of the original owner and some of her friends. They were taken from a distance while the album itself was propped on a piece of furniture so the resolution isn't the greatest. But another picture caught my eye and really whetted my appetite for seeing this book or getting better individual scans.

Above on the left is the only picture I have of John Kuck's homestead, a blurry double printing. It was eventually destroyed in a tornado I think back in the 1960's so I have never seen it in person though I did go and stand on the spot where it once stood which is currently in the front lawn of a nursing home facility. I have often wished to go there with a metal detector and see what I might find but the lawn is so perfectly manicured I'm not sure I would be allowed. I am also not very optimistic I would find anything as it was likely bulldozed and hauled away after the tornado.

But back to the pictures sent from the album's new owner. In one of the pictures she sent me was the photo on the right which was rotated, had bad parallax and not of the best resolution. But it was clear to me it is a clear picture of my great great great grandfather's house and there are people standing on the front porch. It appears to be a woman and two children, the older one female and holding up a bike in front of her. It was likely taken earlier than my picture which on the back written in pencil is the date 1891. What I wouldn't give right now for a high resolution scan of the picture on the right.

But for now I must wait and see what the new owner decides to do. I did send her a long email detailing all I know of the original album's owner which is quite fascinating since she was a very well traveled and independent woman for that time. I also gave her some background on her parents as well. For not though, I wait.