Grandparents Day Surprise!

I’ve always been fascinated with my grandfather’s genealogy. Mostly because his is the one I have the least information about, and the side with the least amount of pictures.

Pictures, to me, are the best thing you can have in your genealogy. When I do not have a picture, I feel like I can not connect with them as much as if I do have one. A picture really allows me to know who they were and what they looked like, rather than just a name or a date.

I have scanned every picture that my grandfather had in his possession, which was not many. I always ask my grandfather about his grandmother and what she was like. He would tell me, and I would ask do you know if you have a picture of her? He would always reply, “You know, I actually don’t remember any pictures of her.” But, I always still wondered if there was a picture of her somewhere.

I thought I might ask someone in my grandfather’s family. I messaged my first cousin once removed on Facebook and asked her if she had any. She loves photography and is also interested in family history, so I thought she would be the perfect person to ask. She messaged back saying that she indeed did have scanned photos that she could send me, and also a couple original photos. I was so excited that I could not wait! My grandparents were coming over for dinner that weekend because it was Grandparents Day. The mail arrived with the picture CD inside, with other things included. I popped the CD into the computer and looked at all the photos. They were amazing, they stretched from my grandfather’s grandfather, his aunt’s and uncles, young pictures of his parents, and even a picture of his grandmother. Ecstatic, I drove over to the picture development store and printed out copies for myself and my grandfather, along with an 8x10 enlargement of the picture of his grandmother. I got home in time and put everything together.

We had dinner and it was a great meal, but I waited to give them their presents until dinner was finished. I had gotten my grandmother a frame with seven 4x6 pictures in it. All of which, were pictures of her ancestors. She loved it and looked at all the pictures. Then, I brought out the 8x10 photo and said, “Does anyone in this picture look familiar Papa?” to my grandfather. He looked at it carefully and said, “Now, wait a minute. This is a picture of my grandmother!” At which point my grandmother asked, “Really!?” They looked on for minutes and talked about the stories he had told my grandmother about her. My grandfather asked, “Where did you get this?” and I told them. I also gave them the other prints. They looked on for about an hour at the around seventy photo’s I gave them. You could really see that he enjoyed looking at the photos and telling you who they were. These were pictures he had not seen in a long time, or never at all.

What a great grandparent’s day that was. What a surprise to my grandfather too! I wish I had caught that moment on tape, but forgot to. I will be eternally thanking my cousin for how nice and grateful she was! This really helped me! My grandparents now have the 8x10 photo hanging up in their living room. I printed out a 5x7 copy of that photo and will hang it up on my wall as soon as I get a frame.

I'll be back soon to post more. If you ever find any relation in my blog, feel free e-mailing me at bullfrog1995@yahoo.com

P.S. I guess I’m always finding out information on Maxime and Séraphine. I recently found out that they moved the U.S.A in 1898 and lived in Connecticut and later to Massachusetts. Séraphine most likely died after the 1900 census, seeing as that she was in the Day Kimball Hospital in Connecticut. But Maxime lived until at least 1925 at the age of 86 in Turners Falls, Massachusetts. It’s actually more possible to find their gravestones now.