SPRING CLEANING by Bonnie Christensen, [email protected]

I have collected photos and albums from the late 1800s for more than 20 years. With retirement has come a desire to relieve myself of some "stuff." Several weeks ago I listed 38 cabinet cards (studio photos from the turn of the century) on eBay. 34 of them sold -- for nearly $1,000! I was completely and totally floored, especially since I paid $2 or less for each one. After that unexpected windfall, I started going through my boxes of photos and albums, hoping to find other valuable photos (like the ones of circus performers that brought $128 each). I found an interesting photo identified on the back as Spencer KELLOGG, which said, "To Grandma with love from Spenny." The photo was taken in New York. I also pulled an album that I bought at a flea market about 15 years ago off of a shelf in my den. I bought the album because of its interesting cover. Since all of the pictures in the album had names written under them, I had never removed them from the album. The album, too, was from New York. I began wondering if I could find Spencer KELLOGG or any of the names in the album on the Internet.

It took me less than 20 minutes to find a reference to Spencer KELLOGG on a KELLOGG family ancestry Web site. I e-mailed the person who created the site to ask if this could be the same Spencer as the one in my photo.

It took me an additional three hours to find a family tree that contained nearly every name in the album. I can't tell you how exciting it was to see those very names on a family tree! But, the family tree ended in the late 1800s, the same period as my photos, and at this point I was determined to find living descendants of the people in the album.

It took me the rest of the day, but I found two living descendants, both of whom have done extensive research on their family and have a great-grandfather in common. One of them administers a mail list on the family through RootsWeb, and I found him by searching the WHIPPLE-L archives. He had posted information about his ancestors, who were in my album, in an e-mail to the mail list. I knew about the archives because I am a member of a Glass Ornaments list, hosted by RootsWeb.

What do you think the odds are that a 100+ year old album that sat on a shelf in North Carolina for 15 years would ever find its way back to the descendants of the people in the album? I copied all of the photos for one of the descendants, and shipped the album to the other one. I guess you could say that the album went "home."

Oh, and Spencer KELLOGG? The woman I e-mailed turned out to be his great-granddaughter, and I've mailed the photo to her. She, too, has done extensive research on her family and had never seen a picture of her great-grandfather as a child.

None of this could have happened without the power of the Internet - and of RootsWeb.