Finding Treasures in Interesting Places

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Ancestry Quick Tip eBay Tip Homer Thiel

George Morgan's article "Finding Treasure in Interesting Places" discusses using eBay to find family history items. I have registered two relatively obscure surnames using their "My Favorite Searches" tool. eBay has automatically sent me an e-mail when people have posted auction listings that include these surnames. In one case I was able to purchase a postcard sent to my great grandfather's cousin. One caveat, obviously this won't work for common surnames

From the Ancestry.com archives: "Along Those Lines" 9-30-2005 - Archive

Finding Treasures in Interesting Places

My mother decided to move into a retirement complex in 1988. As a result, my brother, my sister-in-law, and I were recruited to help her select the things she would take with her from a three-bedroom home into essentially an efficiency apartment. In the process, my brother happened to lift the corner of her bedroom carpet which happened not to be tacked down. Imagine his (and our) amazement when he found two $100 bills! Further searches under the rug, in books, and inside antique covered cbutterole bowls in the china cabinet yielded a whopping $4,200! This is certainly a lesson to those of us who have to clean out a parent's or other relative's home.

Money isn't everything, of course. For genealogists like me, scouring bookstores, vendor booths at conferences, flea markets, and other places can yield some forgotten period book that contains information that can expand my knowledge of context or help locate other resources. In "Along Those Lines . . ." this week, I'd like to share some of my finds and to encourage you to start looking too.

Local Conference Yields Place Name Gold Our local genealogical society held an all-day conference on 17 September. We drew a number of vendors to the event whose information and products were well-received--and bought. One vendor of primarily Pennsylvania books and maps had a very unusual and unique book that caught my eye. It is The Monitor Guide to Post Offices and Railroad Stations in the United States and Canada - 1876. The book is a 1976 reprint in facsimile of the original volume and is truly a treasure. Remember that at that time people did not travel to towns and cities because of the distance and other difficulties of the trip. Instead, mail was delivered to freight offices, railroad stations, and country stores nearby. Many of those places are gone, and the folder and sealed letters without envelopes may contain not only the addressee's information, but there is a postmark. The place where the postmark was applied may be gone, but this unique book is a real boon to locating the place, county, state, and the railroad or freight service that delivered goods, mail, and packages. The vendor told me that it was just a book that she no longer wanted and just brought it on a whim. Her whim was indeed my treasure.

Used Bookstore Sells History While visiting one of several used bookstores in Micanopy, Florida, last year, I discovered one whose collection of wares included three books that I 've found invaluable to my subsequent research. They are:

When, Where, Why, and How It Happened, published by Readers Digest in 1995, contains information about the historic events that may have influenced our ancestors, or in which they participated. This is another reference for developing or understanding context. The Handwriting of American Records for a Period of 300 Years, by E. Kay Kirkham, published in 1973. It is another excellent resource for deciphering old handwriting, and it complements the book by Kip Sperry, Reading Early American Handwriting, and Hilary Marshall's Paleography for Family and Local Historians, published in 2004 by Phillimore & Co. in England. Why someone would let go of this book, I don't know. All that I know is that it is a great resource for reading old handwriting, especially in the British Isles! North Carolina through Four Centuries, written by William S. Powell and published in 1989. I have a large collection of ancestors and living relatives in North Carolina, and I know Mr. Powell to be an authority on the state. He is a prolific author and his work is always engaging and accessible. This history book is a nice complement to my other North Carolina history which is more a college textbook than a reference work. Hooray for eBay! Also known as "the world's largest garage sale," eBay can be the place where you find rare and amazing things. I have long collected vintage picture postcards of the places why ancestral families lived. eBay is a great source for these gems and they add a visual image of my ancestors' environment. I also collect vintage stereographic cards anywhere I can find them. I focus on ancestral places, historic American events, and cemeteries. eBay is another resource for these treasures.

Flee to the Flea Market! I hope you aren't a "flea market snob," avoiding these potential gold mines. You see all types of people there, many of whom are collectors of some type of item or another. I once met a man who collected spittoons, and talked at length with a man who has collected more than 5,000 decorative doorknobs and has mounted them on the walls of rooms in his house.

You have to cull through a lot of interesting and unusual items to find materials of genealogical value. Once you get past the tube socks and t-shirt vendors, you may see a red plastic napkin holder from your childhood that's now selling for $30! Wow! But once you find some items of interest, your cash and credit cards may be thumping in your wallet to be used. Among the genealogical items I've found at flea markets are city directories, local histories, old atlases that show the older place names and boundaries, stereographic cards, photograph albums and bibles, and historical items that add more contextual understanding of your ancestors' lives and occupations. The vendors are great to talk to and usually know more history than you would ever imagine.

Go for the Gold! These few places have been very rich treasure troves for me. However, I have learned that you have to dig for any treasure you want to find. As genealogists, we all know that already. I urge you to look beyond the ordinary and traditional places to locate these types of treasures, perhaps in the most out-of-the-way places.

Happy Prospecting! George

-- Di Maloney Please remove 1 from email address to reply direct.