There is something about receiving a real honest-to-god letter. If we were 20 years down the road, Cousin Florence would have been electronically e-mailing me in some way. Instead I receive a triple folded letter, written in her hand on stationary and with a flow of ink reminiscent of an old style pen.
Even though I extract the relevant facts and incorporate them into my genealogy blogs, the letters convey more information than the writers probably ever consciously intended. The style of handwriting; how penmanship was corrected; how whole words were crossed-out, revised or added-in the margins; all add to meaning. The selection of words; the formation of phrases; the choice and order of subjects; the history and depth of the metaphors also enrich meaning and speak for themselves. I plan on including many of these correspondences in the final ‘Walch Family Book.’ Here's a sample of one of my Dear John letters for now:
[This letter was received following a brief telephone call in which we exchanged the primary genealogy facts, and following a letter I wrote conveying the information I already knew and the questions I still had.]
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
September 9, 2008
Dear John
It was a pleasure to receive your letter. I am very sorry to hear of your affliction, and I admire you for working so diligently on the family history & am grateful to you for extending your endeavors on my behalf.
You can opt for whatever information will suit your purposes concerning my father.
He was a very dear man, full of quick wit & humor as well as being compassionate towards his patients. Those were the days of physicians’ house calls & he was ever so kind to elderly people.
He was in the Army in Atlanta when WW I ended & answer the call to become a pathologist at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids. In 1920 –[day given] I was born and my mother died three or four days after of influenza & pneumonia. He took me at 8 months back to New Jersey to stay with my mother's mother & sister. In 5 years he married the sister of a surgeon with whom we all took up residence. In 1925 [actually 1930] his second wife died. In 1938, he married a nurse. He died of pancreatic cancer in 1947.
My father was an avid tennis player, love classical music and had many friends. He belonged to and participated in medical organizations. He told me one time, when I asked about my forbearers, that it was more important to be self-reliant and not count on them for recognition & success. I wish he had told me more about his early life.
He broadened his medical career from pathology, doing anesthetics, and became a family doctor.
He kept a close relationship with his sister. Elizabeth -- known to us all as Aunt Beth, who lived in Portland, Oregon with her husband Ted Kramer & their family of two boys. She was a nurse, still on duty until 75 years of age.
I remember my father giving a talk on the radio about "The Common Cold" -- in what he said still is true today.
I was always terrified of doctor’s offices with their gleaming steel instruments and was not attentive to the medical world, sorry to say.
I do remember my grandmother telling me that my father sold newspapers on the New York Central Railroad Station, and that at the age of 11, he started saving his earnings towards becoming a physician. He must have admired his grandmother who bought him up, as he cared for her all her life.
I'm sorry not to have statistics of events or achievements.
I eagerly await any information on John Van Winkle, & I'll share it with Richard V.W., Marjory, Sharon & Jenny.
Florence
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