Family: Lost and found

A piece of family history can be found in a library book.

As a young girl, I spent a lot of time at the iconic New York Public Library – with those stone lions out front - working on school projects. I once found a book I needed and opened it. Out fell an old-fashioned photo postcard with my grandfather’s picture on it.

He was in the army and had sent the card, with a message, to his sister. She had likely stuck it in the book and forgotten about it, until I found it decades later.

My grandfather - Szaje Sidney Fink - whose photo was found in a library book!

I wasn’t a genealogist then, and in what I now believe was a misguided act of responsibility, I put the card back in the book. Perhaps the owner would come looking for it?

When I got home, I told my family about it, and everyone said I should have brought it home. Fortunately, we found a copy at another relative’s home much later.

Have you ever had to clear out the home of a deceased relative or had to help move an elderly relative to a retirement or nursing home?

Checking the dusty corners of a large home, or even a small apartment, can produce family treasures that would otherwise be lost forever.

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