North & South...

I made a discovery a few days ago that just thrilled me! As some of you know, we lost our home and animals to a fire almost two years ago ~ I won't dwell on the details now, but we also lost lots of original photos and heirlooms ~ items that I would have been devastated to have lost any other way, but under the circumstances, those "things" meant little when we were also faced with the loss of our sweet pets...

We did, however, have quite a few boxes still in storage (we had not lived long in the house that burned, and not everything had been moved there); in one of my "keep-boxes", along with school papers, newspaper clippings and other ephemera, was this scan of my Great-Great-Great Grandfather's Civil War discharge order... (The Grandfather on my Mom's side fought for the North (just because he lived in Southern Illinois at the time; he was an Alabama-born Southern boy; this is his discharge order) and the Grandfather on my Daddy's side fought for the South (in the 8th Missouri Cavalry ~ Ring, the dog in the photo with my Dad in a previous post, belonged to him)...but I doubt either of these teen-age boys-made-men really had any political leanings, one way or the other...their "loyalty" depended on the area they were living in and the people around them at the time).

But, back to my "find"... I was so happy! No, it isn't the original, but good enough quality to print out on archival paper and frame. I just sent copies to my children and a cousin interested in this side of the family's genealogy ~ I'm sure they'll be surprised and pleased...let this be a "cautionary tale", though...be sure there are mulitiples of all your precious photos and documents...(I thought I had this pretty well covered, but not well enough). Of course there can be only one original, but the more excellent-quality scans and copies spread around, the better!

♥♥♥

Anne