Generational rabbit holes

So, after MUCH procrastination, I finally kick-started myself into starting what I know is going to be an excruciating process to organize and weed out family photos. One. “Album”. At. A. Time. “Album?” They aren’t all stashed in neat albums, instead there are albums in many form factors and boxes and ziploc bags and some old framed photos. You name it.

The first album I grabbed was greatly encouraging. It was filled with crappy photos of European scenery my parents took with a cheap camera. I trashed almost all of those. The second album… I got rid of a whole bunch of identical CRAPPY sunset photos my dad took at the moomincabin in the 1990s. I took a bunch of similar ones. My iPhone takes photos 100 times better than those. But there were also other things in there. Parties at my dad’s bank for one. I stashed those to reconsider later.

Today. I hit a bit of a snag… It was MacMu relatives that I mostly have never met because they died before I was born or I was too young to know I was meeting them. The Commander had LABELED THE PHOTOS! She didn’t usually use last names but I’ve been hearing about people like “Aunt Lillian” and “Grandpa Lathers” and “Carrie Chapman” my whole life. The Comm obviously knew these people intimately. Me not so much. Plus, her family lived in the Detroit area and I grew up in the Yooperland. We certainly visited her family a few times a year so I know all my first cousins, etc.

It was enough to get me to dust off my Ancestry app. I bought a subscription a few years ago but don’t use it often. Today I fell into a rabbit hole. I think I sorta knew that Carrie Chapman was one of my great-grandmothers but I didn’t know which one (mom’s dad’s mother). She may also have been the person who claimed Johnny Appleseed as an ancestor. His real name was Chapman so it may or may not be true. If true, I certainly didn’t get any of that DNA since I have a Black Thumb when it comes to gardening.

Today’s rabbit hole doesn’t mean I am diving deeply into genealogical research. What I did today was to stand in the center of it all swinging wildly and probably some of it was not accurate. What helps with that branch of my family is that many of them settled in what used to be a farming area near Detroit. Now not so much. The big multi-generational farmhouse that The Comm grew up in was replaced by a Burger King and not sure what’s there now. (I was able to tour that house once but only vaguely remember it.)

And then… Man oh man. When I want to put something in the trash. I NEED TO PUT IT IN THE TRASH. I MEAN OUTSIDE! I put the photos I trashed in a small wastebasket near my “office”. This afternoon, I heard the GG rummaging in that area. WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING? He saw photos and wanted to investigate. NOOOOOOO. These photos are MINE to save or trash and I will trash them if I don’t find value in them. I have been in the cFam family forever and I SHOULD KNOW BETTER. I think The Commander would approve but I am glad that she at least lightly labeled the pics in that one album because a better picture of my MacMu family tree is emerging.

3 Responses to “Generational rabbit holes”

  1. Isa Says:

    Duplicate bad sunset pics are one thing but keep those old photos!! Iiiiii might like to see them sometime…

  2. Pooh Says:

    I would recommend scanning the old photos, (and the backs, if there is writing on it). Save the photos to a thumb drive. Of course, I am not the pitcher in our family, but the keeper. Coincidentally, I’ve been poking around in Ancestry again. I’m doing Mark’s family now.

  3. Margaret Says:

    My mom throws away old photos and some of them I would have liked. But it’s her choice. I’m sure I have a bunch of crappy sunset photos somewhere too. I’ll let my kids deal with them!