Old Letters, New Life

I never got a chance to meet my maternal grandfather.  He passed away at a fairly young age, years before I was born.  However, his spirit still seems to be very present in our family - in the efficiency of my aunts and uncles, the wry humor of my cousins, the lines of our noses and the pride we take in our Irish heritage.

On the other hand, I did get to know my grandma for a while.  I can remember her as a card-player and a good hugger, but details are fuzzy.  I often catch myself wondering what it would have been like to know her, now, as "a real person." I wish I could talk to her and listen to her and ask her questions, rather than just beg for one of her famous cookies.

Through my conversations with older relatives, these two start to take shape.  James (Jim): the smart, capable Irishman, with a witty humor and a loathing for messy automobiles.  And Ruth: the beauty, the clever, charismatic favorite, who was sure to light up a room.

And, finally, there is a box of letters.  It's been resting in the cedar chest, and brought out occasionally for school projects, family lore, and general reminiscence.  The letters range in date from March 18, 1942 to September 10, 1945.  The first letter was sent within South Dakota, but over the years they start coming in from Kentucky, New York, France, Belgium...  These letters cover the length of my grandparents' courtship, marriage, and young family, set against the background of World War II, where James was a Lieutenant.

My goal is to transcribe and post these letters at the rate of one per week.  I would also like to scan digital copies of the originals, so readers can get a feel for the handwriting and layout, and possibly help to decipher any words that I can't figure out.

Partially, my interest in this project is professional.  I am currently going to school for a Masters of Library and Information Science, and I have a special interest in historical archives.  I feel these letters provide interesting snapshots of what American life was like during mid-century wartime.  They are interesting, comprehensive, and otherwise worthy of being kept.  I would like to type them up and scan them so that they can be preserved for the future.

But, really, my greater interest is personal.  This is a way for me to learn more about a side of my family, and feel a deeper connection to my own history.  Additionally, this will be a way to share the letters with family scattered all over the US.  I feel somewhat ill-equipped for this project, since there are many people who knew Jim and Ruth much better than I did, and I'm a little afraid of getting things wrong.  But I hope this will be an opportunity for other relatives to offer input, corrections, and their own anecdotes.  I think there is a lot of room to add to their story, and the story of the family.  While the archival side of things is interesting to me, I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't moved by the relationship of my grandparents, and interested in sharing the experience with others who knew and loved them.

So!  In the next post, we will be starting off in March of 1942, in the town of Eagle Butte, South Dakota, where James Flahaven wrote to Miss Ruth Schmidt to brighten her day and send her his love.