However, I am so excited to get this started, that I cannot rest yet.
The purpose of this blog is to share with the world my foray into my family's history. I've just recently acquired somewhere around 200 letters written by my Grandfather in 1945, while he was deployed overseas during World War II. At this time, he was a Captain in the Canadian Army.
I have not read the letters myself yet. Just tonight, I carefully unfolded 120 letters and placed each one in an archival-quality page protector. I organized the 120 letters in chronological order, and they are all from February-November 1945.
Getting Started:
The letters were all folded up, and had been hidden away in an attic for years. The "Hope Chest" they were in belonged to my grandmother, Isobel (Austin) Scammell. Also in the chest was a birthday card to Isobel from her mother-in-law (my Great-Grandmother) explaining that she would be getting a Hope Chest, and to keep her most prized posessions in it.
Messy:
Thankfully I have lots of open workspace to play with at work. Unfortunately I under-estimated how many letters we had and only ordered 120 archival-quality page protectors. I will need at least 120 more, but I do have enough to keep me busy for now!
Looking Better:
All 120 letters that I was dealing with are sorted into month. I then organized them chronologically within their month, and put them in a binder for now, until a prettier long-term solution is made.
It seems Grampie Frank wrote to my grandmother nearly daily, and sometimes twice! I expect the gaps in these 10 months are going to be filled in with the remaining 100+ letters that I haven't organized yet!
February, March, April, May 1945
June, July, August, September 1945
October & November 1945
It was very challenging to stay on-task and not just read them all! Just skimming through several of them, I see so much of his personality. I can't wait to get into every single one and archive it electronically to share with our family and anyone else who is interested in Canadian WWII history.
That's all for now - I shall start typing away and see how far I get before my shift is over!
Sincerely,
Helen Scammell
Youngest Granddaughter of Captain F. E. Scammell
Thanks so much Helen for sharing these wonderful letters from Uncle Frank to my Aunt Isabel. They are very interesting and he evens mentions seeing my father, Hugh, in several of the letters.
ReplyDeletePat (Austin) Noade. Jan. 29, 2013.