Genealogy Wise

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Earlier this week I published a blog discussing my genealogy heartbreak. My maternal grandfather missed my nana so much after she died that one night when he was drunk he burned all the family photos. Pictures of my mom and her three siblings from when they were babies on, pictures of my nana and grandpa from when they were babies on, pictures of holidays with the family, ALL gone. My genealogy heartbreak is that I will never know what my grandparents or my own mother looked like as a baby and throughout their childhoods. This breaks my heart. I would love to hear about others genealogy heartbreaks. Maybe we can find some comfort in this forum. :)

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How awful! I am so sorry.
My heart goes out to you. Perhaps you will locate additional photos.
The internet is an amazing tool.
Don't give up!
Thank you Bernadette and Michael. Hopefully someone, somewhere has extras and I will be fortunate enough to run across those.
When my grandmother died in 1980, Dad inherited, among other items, two huge, thick leather-bound Bibles, one in Swedish and the other in Norwegian, with deep-carved detailing in the covers and lots of gold leaf and beautifully engraved illustrations throughout. One (the Swedish one) had belonged to my great-grandfather Otis Larson and the other to his wife, Johanna, who was from Norway. These were, aside from a few photographs of my great-grandparents, all we had of them and they would have become mine when my father died in 1996. However, my drug addict little brother stole the Bibles and sold them for money to buy drugs with. :(
My grandmother's sister had many of the family heirlooms from Germany, and I heard that many of them ended up getting thrown out!
My family bible (MacDonalds), going back hundreds of years, it was brought over from Scotland to Canada with old Uncle Donald "Dohmnuill Ceister" MacDonald in 1841 (I think, he was the oldest and therefore would have been the one to bring it to Canada) on the ship John Walker. According to my great-grandmother, it went back at least to the 1600s, probably and possibly further. It burnt up in the church, leaving behind a five hundred foot thick brick wall.

Another side, the house burnt up and burned up everything, I don't know whether anything was saved at all. So we have but a few photographs.

And another house fire burned everything up, my great-grandfather's house, in 1985. I never knew that side of the family, but I still find it sad.
August 2006 -- My sisters and brother and I gathered at my sister's house, along with our spouses for pre-season football. It is somewhat of a family tradition and always enjoyed. Before the games, my brother and his wife told us that their daughter was pregnant. We were surprised and pleased knowing that the baby would be the first grandchild for any of us. As the discussion progressed, I mentioned that I had wanted my brother to take a DNA test for genealogical research purposes. He is the only son of an only son. He agreed and I was to get back with him to make the arrangements. Fast forward to October 2006, my brother was killed in a motorcycle accident. It was a tragic and devastating loss to us. My regret is that I never did have him complete the dna test. I thought we had plenty of time and that the difficult part would have been to get him to agree to the test.

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