My mother kept some unusual things. She was not one for material possessions and donated items regularly for flea markets at the church. She didn't hold on to dishes, knickknacks or clothes. Rather, she kept our report cards, concert programs and newspaper articles of interest.
One item we found in her apartment after she died was the front page of the Evening Telegram of St. John's, Newfoundland, the day after President Kennedy died. We also discovered this book, The History of the United States.
When Mom and Dad purchased our home in Mount Pearl in 1958, they bought it from an American man, his Newfoundland-born wife and two daughters. The book had been left in the house. Mom kept it and after she was gone, so did I.
It was published in the 1870s and the inscription on the front is faded but states
A Christmas Gift for
Abbie Conklin
From
Alice A. Draper, 1875
There is a line through this inscription.
At the top of the page is the name
Ray Hubbell
My family has no connection to any of these people. Since 1958, it has been in my family, before that, with the previous owners of the house. How does that family link to the people named in the book? The surnames are different. Who were the people behind the names? Where did they live? How were they connected?
The website ancestry.com has an Abigail Abbie Conklin born in New York, lived 1828-1897. Could this be the same Abbie? I have not found a potential Alice or Ray.
Mom liked history, mystery and old books too.
20 comments:
It's a keeper for sure.
When my grandmother died, we found an old newspaper clipping among her scrapbooks -- Edward VIII's abdication speech from 1936. Guess it made a big impact on her to have kept it all those years!
What a wonderful treasure.
I hope you solve the mystery. I can't wait to learn more....
I would love to hold it and peruse those old pages and facts. :-)
The book is beautiful. It is indeed something to save for future generations!
It is for me!
That's a treasure for sure!
I can't imagine I ever will solve it. I guess there's always hope.
It is an interesting text. There are many available to buy on line for reasonable prices. It was a text book so there are lots of them around.
I plan to save it, Angela.
Me too. Me too. How neat.
That is just so interesting. How exciting.
It is!
It is that too.
Don't you love mysteries like this, Marie? Oh, and by the way, referring to your last blog entry...my mother loved seeing clothes drying on lines outside. She even took photos of them and labeled the pictures with witty names.
Neat
Lol. Your mom had a good sense of humour!
It is!
I love old books and history! In England we have had a census every 10 years since 1841 which shows who is living in a particular house and what age they were and where they were born. I did a quick search and found this http://ngb.chebucto.org/census.shtml it might give you some more details? Sarah x
Thank you for the interest. I have used that website for years. It holds a wealth of information.
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