Somebody's life in a box on e-bay.....

[pjbuk007]

Have a look at my post in the Common Room WINDLE, FOX interesting items

I think berlin-bob has a point.  Maybe we should just keep looking ourselves.  Although I have been all through "ephemera" which has taken hours!  There are many other names of wonderful finds such as ration books, in memoriam cards and more.  And that ignores the family bibles which are in another listing.  I realise that the chance of anything relating to a rootschatter being in one of those tasty lots is slim. I was thinking of some way to alert people, but now realise that chances of success are small.  And only the most obsessional of us will keep looking regularly.

Perhaps we should have a sticky saying "Remember to look on ebay".  So that everyone has a trawl through the listings now and then.  

It is so frustrating as someone whose relatives chucked EVERYTHING out and whose father's family bible was nicked in the 1950s, it exercises me greatly to have so little!

[Lydart]

Slightly off topic ... but  pjbuk's remark about having so little reminded me that when my mother died, I found a huge box full of every single letter I had ever written to her in about 50 years or so ... right from when I was a child, and including 100's of letters I'd written to her from Africa, which were a wonderful replacements for all my Africa diaries that I lost ...

Which of our children will have such a collection, in the days of emails ??

[bel_jon68]

PJ - I sympathise with you entirely - my late grandfather had great stories to tell about WWII - such as the time he was one of only three survivors of a sunken ship, and spent 48 hours in the water (which is why he hated trips to the seaside and would always stay in the car) - and someone threw out his medals and all his other war memorabilia, plus cine films of me as a toddler with my grandmother (who died before I was 3).  It's so frustrating!  

Now that I'm doing my family history for my kids, I won't throw anything away!

[pjbuk007]

Thanks for the sympathy, both!

I do tend to hoard things.  But I am realising that I should be more coherent about how I file them. 

I recently helped a bereaved friend and her sisters (whom I have known for >50 years) clear out the house which I have been visiting for 45 years.  The pile I insisted that they keep grew and grew - her Dad had kept his log books from scout camps in the thirties, all in his own hand! 

Not to mention that he had a beautifully written and framed family tree.  That is what comes from having a family with professional (artist) antecedents going back generations!

My lot were right at the bottom of the heap until the mid 20th century, so there is not much on record.  But I love them just as much.

[Ruskie]

Wow, I've just logged on this morning to read what a commotion I missed last night!

What a price. Jamie you must be thrilled!

I really hope that the lucky winner will consider contacting the rootschatters so they can solve the mysteries contained in the box. It's fairly unlikely that the letters and photographs themselves will have much monetary value and I assume they either collect the programmes etc or plan to sell them on.

Hopefully the seller will at least give rootschatters the chance to try to find any living relatives of these people.

Mind you, if someone contacted me saying that a box of my ancestor's personal items had just been sold on ebay for X hundreds of pounds, I don't know how I'd feel .....

[brendam]

I'll probably end up way off topic here, but ...  I've been following these posts with great interest like everyone else.  This would have been an amazing box to win, but like most, way out of my price range. 

To the seller (Jamie, is that you).  Congratulations on a good sell and thank you for making these items available to interested parties. 

To the buyer (whoever you might be).  I really hope you share your good fortune with all of the rootchatters who are so interested in family history.  If the items are related to your family, you have a treasure.  If not, let all the helpful and knowledgeable people at Rootschat be helpful in getting this history together with the family.  The people on this site are interested in their own family history, but so important, they are interested in helping others find their roots.

We were all taught history in school ...  this event happened on this day.  Behind the events are the people and families.  So many of us are struggling to find any history we can on our families and treasures such as 'the box" are priceless.  A letter written many years ago (or even yesterday) can provide so much information, it is amazing.  A photo of someone that you've never seen, but you know there must be one out there - priceless.

Family history from a stranger on ebay is a good find.  Now my 'off topic' grumble ...

We have all had deaths of immediate family members.  I would rather pay a 'stranger' on ebay than pay an immediate family member for a photo for a dearly loved one.  Like an instance where a photo was sent of a close family member by another, than after saying thank you, an outrageous bill will sent for the photo.  That's my grumble for the night!

[KathMc]

Fantastic thread. I have read with interest all the posts. I long to find something like this regarding my family, but also dread it as i could never pay that price. it is a double-edge sword. I hope the buyer is interested in letting rootschatters find a real home for the family stuff.

kath

[Jeanette H]

Hello To All RootsChat Members,

Now that all the excitement has died down, I for one feel that I must get my thoughts back on to my own research.  This escape has been enjoyable and very exciting.  Also an eye-opener to what lengths people will go to, in paying for such things.

I stayed up till end of auction, reading 16 messages from other members, then I went to bed.  When I got up today there were 31 more messages in my inbox.

Such an 'Astonishing' and 'Outstanding' amount for the final bid!   No Way!  Could we afford such an outlay, as I am sure most other members on 'RootsChat' are in the same boat.

We will all have to put our 'Research' and 'Personal Collectables' and 'Mementos', under lock and key, or in a bank vault or similar.  Can you imagine the temptation to other people, who have no real Personal Interest in all these things?

I am going to be even more careful from now on, so as to safe-guard all that we hold of personal value.
That includes every aspect of our 'Research'!

See everyone, elsewhere on 'RootsChat'.

Jeanette H.
   

[angi0]

H all

My partner is also a stamp dealer although not to the same level as Jamie.. (well done Jamie) when we saw this lot My partner alerted Jamie to the interest that the item had created but also got us to thinking we had received some documents in a box of stamps which we never intended putting on ebay I have made a post with regard to the items if anyone feels they can help find family members I have made the following post..

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,254349.msg1413648.html#msg1413648

ha all the census information in that I can gleam for the family...

Angie