I
used to write letters all the time, at least a letter a day, but over the years
I have gotten away from that practice. However, I have been writing a lot of
letters lately for both good and not so pleasant reasons. As you have read,
there are a number of correspondences that I have sent to management but there
have also been a few that I have written for other reasons. It seems as though
email and phone calls have become more of an annoyance for some so reverting
back to a more traditional form of communication may provide more substantial
results.
While
I send a fair amount of snail mail as Secretary of my masonic lodge, which there seems to be
a lot of this summer, the other pieces of mail have a much different purpose. I
have taken a considerable amount of time off from doing the in depth
genealogical research and now, as I previously mentioned, we are at a point
when on line resources are not going to provide the additional information that
we are looking for. There are a few things that come up here and there as
archives are digitized but that still leaves us wanting more.
So,
the first letter I wrote was to the Monacan Nation as it is now time to pursue
membership in the tribe. Basically, there is a question as to how far back we
need to provide documentation. Do we need to prove connection to those on the
original rolls or do we need documentation of those individuals? It may seem
like a small question but it has tremendous ramifications… one generation makes
all the difference as the documents needed for that final step have gone missing
from the archive in which they are stored. We will have to wait and see if this
is going to be easy (as we have all the documents needed) or hard (and we need
to find out where that one document is being stored).
Another
piece of mail dropped off at the post office was to a woman living in Spring
City, Pennsylvania. She is a descendant of my great grandfather and his second
wife. While my grandmother wanted nothing to do with her father or her
half-sister, it is time for the family to know more about that forgotten
branch. I outlined the research and explained why I am reaching out in the letter
but there is still no guarantee as to whether or not I will get a response.
Frankly, I am not 100% certain that I am writing to the right person but all of
the supporting information seems to make sense. After all, if I am correct, she
is still living in the same house that my great grandfather lived in.
Next
up will be pulling together all the information needed for the Sons of the
American Revolution application. While I have all the documents needed, and
then some, this is still going to be a project and a half. The work has already
been done it is simply a matter of sending it in such a way as to speed up the
approval process. It will be nice to finally have this off my plate after a year
languishing on my to-do list.
So
that is the plan at the moment. This, combined with whatever my aunt and uncle
can find out during their upcoming trip to Virginia, will hopefully fill in a
few gaps in the tree. Until then, I think I will find a few more people I can
write, email, and call. And, of course, get a lot of editing done on the tree
as it is looking a little ragged and is in dire need of pruning.
No comments:
Post a Comment