Sunday, October 27, 2019

Two Boxes of History

My grandmother's first cousin Helen died a few weeks ago.  Helen and her siblings were the only first cousins side that my grandmother knew growing up, since all of the others grew up in what was then Czechoslovakia or Romania, while my grandmother was born in Pennsylvania.  One of Helen's brothers had given me some (very poor) photostats of some family documents in the early 1990s, but I'd never seen the originals.  Both of Helen's brothers died years ago.

I'd asked Helen a year or so ago if she had any family documents or photos, but she said that she didn't.  She did share some stories of growing up and of some relatives that she remembered.  Well, it turns out Helen had documents and photos.  Lots of them.

Helen's niece (on Helen's husband's side) has been going through her house.  As she found Rutner-related documents and information, she added them to a box.  And then she had to start adding them to a second box.  It turns out that Helen had many documents and photos.  Here's what Helen's niece Elizabeth has given me so far:
Photos and Documents from Helen