My Own Mother Doesn’t Know Me Anymore

I was visiting her a couple months ago for the weekend and just before leaving, she states, “I have this box of stuff.  It’s all falling apart.  I should just toss it, right?”

Stuff from Mom's Box

Holy freaking hell!  How long did she have it?  A year or more.  Her cousin gave it to her.  “Your daughter does that family tree stuff, doesn’t she?”  He gave her a big box with floating pictures and an old fashioned photo album.  Mom thought that due to the falling apartness of the photos and album, that it was all just trash and didn't think I'd want it.  Seriously. 

Holy freaking hell!

This box of stuff got to Mom’s cousin through Mom’s half-uncle, who had no children.  Here is the thing.  My half-great uncle was a genealogist.  This was Mom’s dad’s half brother.  Just to make my life a bit easier, he actually married my mom’s mom’s aunt.  So he researched both sides of Mom’s family, traveling through the US and Canada researching and TAKING PICTURES. 

Now, the only genealogy that I inherited from him was on my grandma’s side.  Uncle Ray hand wrote everything with the right surname in a beautiful book and has nearly no sources listed at all.  He never came right out and stated everyone in the book was related, but it was taken to be so by many after him.  And they are not all related at all.  Some are, but most are not.  But that’s neither here nor there.  There is a box!  With pictures!  And these 9x16 drawings of my great grandfather, his first wife, and his parents (my third great grandparents):

Photo Back: Lena Nelson, first wife of Robert Badgley, mother of Robert Raymond Badgley

Photo Back: Robert Henry Badgley, father of Robert Raymond Badgley

Photo Back: William Deo Badgley, Father of Robert H. Badgley

Photo Back: Wife of William Deo Badgley, mother of Robert H. Badgley, Maiden Name Lloyd

 

I love my half great uncle Robert Raymond Badgley.  He worked near Oakland, California in the railroad switch yards.  He was, at the time, the youngest engineer on the Southern Pacific Railroad and took time off to start a peach ranch. That failed and he went back to work at the railroad, but never got his engineer job back.  He had to work nights and his days were free, so he researched.  And practiced photography until his death in 1960.  My other genealogy cousin (1st, 1ce removed) Norma, was very close with him and I do wish Norma were here to go through the box with me.  The scrapbook alone is detailed with his genealogy trips and details on who is who and how they are related.  I can't wait to add photos to my genealogy database.  My scanner has been getting a workout.