I have in my possession a treasure chest of my husband’s family photographs. When his paternal grandmother died, I inherited all the boxes that were stored under her bed. These were mostly old suit boxes, remember them? The boxes were stuffed full of unidentified family photos and documents important to Tillie or her husband William Edward Douglass.

It’s been fun to go through the photographs and begin to assemble what I think are family groups, based on the few identified photographs. One of these days I’m going to concentrate on those photographs and get them organized into archival albums.

Another task I’ve planned is to organize the documents. Tillie and W. E. belonged to a couple of fraternal groups. She was a licensed practical nurse, I learned.

When I met her she was a cranky, sick, old lady who didn’t like me for taking her favorite grandson away from her. [We moved to Kansas shortly after our marriage in Oklahoma City, to find better jobs.] Despite her hostility toward me, I’m beginning to warm up to the old girl. Look at the treasure chest she saved and I inherited as the family genealogist!