Great Grandmas – Mary Jo Shumway, Deane Alice Duval, & Charlotte Whitesides
That wee little chap up there is my amazing oldest. A few months after he was finally home from the NICU, we had a family gathering all about him in Lewiston, Idaho. Those lovely ladies with him are three of his great-grandmothers who traveled from Star Valley, Wyoming, Kaysville, Utah, & Spokane, Washington to join us that day.
Now that boy of mine is nearly twenty and serving an LDS mission in South Carolina. He has been gone for 20 months & 2 days. He will be home this August.
Four months after my son left, Grandma Mary Jo passed peacefully in a nursing home from Alzheimer’s. Nine months after that, Grandma Deane passed peacefully at home from Leukemia. And then on Tuesday, Grandma Charlotte passed peacefully in a care center from Liver Cancer.
And so, that amazing boy of mine has gained three guardian angels who have loved him his whole life long. I can’t think of three women I would trust more to watch over my boy.
Do you have a living grandparent? If so, call them today. If you are the living grandparent, reach out to your precious grandbabies today. That link is so precious. ❤️
Many years ago, my Grandma’s Maffit cousins decided to put together a book about their family. It was quite an extensive effort. Emails and phone calls went back and forth across the US as cousins tried to identify family members in old photo albums, recall family stories, and put the best information together that they could. Somehow, I didn’t end up with a copy of that book.
Weird, right?
Well, ever since I found out about it – too late to get a copy – I have been trying to get my hands on the CD of photos that was created at the time the book was finished. It has not been a fruitful effort.
But then.
Several weeks ago, I was at my parent’s home to help my mom for a few days. She mentioned that the plastic tub sitting on the guest bed was some family history “stuff” from Grandma’s house that I may want to look through. It sat for a few days before I got to it. There were plenty of interesting items. Partway through the collection, I came across a CD that was marked “SAVE” in big black sharpie.
At this point, I must interrupt myself to share with you, dear reader, that my Grandma was notorious for throwing away family treasures. I will not subject you to the pains of rattling off a list of the items I know she tossed, or my speculation on what else may have been cast aside. Except I can’t help myself. Here is one small example – she had about 13 large tintypes that were not labeled. She showed them to me and said she would be scanning them. Somehow they ended up in the trash and if she ever scanned them, I don’t know where the scans ended up. Her reasoning? They weren’t labeled anyway. Sigh.
So there I was, sitting on the guest bed, looking at a CD that Grandma had loudly labeled “SAVE” and hoping it was the CD of precious images from the Maffit family book. I hopefully and joyfully added it to my already bursting suitcase.
Later that day, I mentioned to my Mom that I thought I had found a CD I had been hoping to get my hands on for years. She tried to tell me I couldn’t take it. Oh boy! She hadn’t even looked in the tub, but when she thought there was something good, she wanted to hang onto it. I just told her nope, I was taking it. And I would share. She couldn’t really argue. Haha.
Finally last week I had a minute to download the photos from the CD. It absolutely was what I thought it was! Hooray!!
And so, I would like to introduce you to my 3rd great-grandfather, John Baptiste Jerrain. Doesn’t he look dapper in his bowtie?
{Insert major genealogy happy dance here!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉}
The photo is labeled with two names, John Baptiste Jerrain & Willow Jeane. The person who shared the photo was my Grandma’s 1st cousin, Willow Jeane, great-granddaughter of Grandpa Jerrain. That Willow Jeane was born 6 years after Grandpa Jerrain died. However, he had another granddaughter named Willow Jeane who was born in 1904, 26 years before Grandpa Jerrain passed. He also had another great-granddaughter named Willow Jeane who was born in 1929, 1 year before his death. Based on the age of the child, I would imagine that IF this child is Willow Jeane, she is Willow Jeane Jerrain, born in 1904, daughter of Prudent Arthur Jerrain & Jessie Campbell Shirky.
What a treasure.
There are so many wonderful photos on the CD. I am delighted!
But there is one more thing. I almost hate to mention it. But here goes.
The photos were scanned using what was likely the best scanning technology at the time. Quite a long time ago. Most of the photos are very, very small digital files. Like very, very, very small. This is one of the largest ones, by at least triple. So if you are one of my Maffit cousins who happens to have any of the old originals of the family photos, how about scanning them again? Or mailing them to this cousin to promptly scan and mail back to you? I promise to share my scans. 🙂
Happy Monday, I hope a long sought for family treasure makes its way to you very, very soon! xoxo
ps – Monday is not my normal day for a Photograph Showcase post, I have several other posts that are in varying stages of completion that were intended for today. But I was so distracted by the joys of seeing my 3rd great-grandfather that I just had to share – TODAY!
