Discover This
Yesterday I received a copy of a patent that my great great grandfather obtained in 1878. I also received a copy of an article that was published about his invention in a magazine called Scientific American in December 1878. Look at this, I told the girls. One of my ancestors did something useful after all.
The patent is on something that is very useful, as the Scientific American article noted, which is a bench vise. With my GG Grandfather's invention, the jaws of the vise are held steady by a lower mechanism that moves in tandem with the upper mechanism that tightens the jaws to hold an object in place. The magazine even mentioned the name of the company that was manufacturing the newly patented bench vise.
I also received my GG Grandfather's recipes for curing skin cancer and a couple of other diseases. I wonder if they really work? He guaranteed that they would work. Oh well, maybe he was just a huckster after all.
Then I showed Cici a letter that was written by my GGG Grandmother shortly before she died. The writing was steady and precise and in perfectly straight lines on the page. She wrote the way you write, I told Cici. So neat and so perfect. In the letter she said that she was thankful that her eyesight and her hearing were still good. She spoke with clarity and understanding about family events that had occurred in the recent past. We have a photo of her and she is a regal looking lady.
How can you find all these things, Cici and Ping wanted to know. Someone else has already done all the work to find them, and she has been emailing them to me, I told the girls. Our common ancestor is my great grandfather. Her family is descended from one of his daughters, and my family is descended from his oldest son.
We also discovered that one of my ancestors died in WWI in France, and one of them was in the Navy and died when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. We have photos of them now as well.
So our discovery of the past continues. Like it or not, I told Cici, this is your family now
The patent is on something that is very useful, as the Scientific American article noted, which is a bench vise. With my GG Grandfather's invention, the jaws of the vise are held steady by a lower mechanism that moves in tandem with the upper mechanism that tightens the jaws to hold an object in place. The magazine even mentioned the name of the company that was manufacturing the newly patented bench vise.
I also received my GG Grandfather's recipes for curing skin cancer and a couple of other diseases. I wonder if they really work? He guaranteed that they would work. Oh well, maybe he was just a huckster after all.
Then I showed Cici a letter that was written by my GGG Grandmother shortly before she died. The writing was steady and precise and in perfectly straight lines on the page. She wrote the way you write, I told Cici. So neat and so perfect. In the letter she said that she was thankful that her eyesight and her hearing were still good. She spoke with clarity and understanding about family events that had occurred in the recent past. We have a photo of her and she is a regal looking lady.
How can you find all these things, Cici and Ping wanted to know. Someone else has already done all the work to find them, and she has been emailing them to me, I told the girls. Our common ancestor is my great grandfather. Her family is descended from one of his daughters, and my family is descended from his oldest son.
We also discovered that one of my ancestors died in WWI in France, and one of them was in the Navy and died when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. We have photos of them now as well.
So our discovery of the past continues. Like it or not, I told Cici, this is your family now
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