Oh George,how wonderful that you now have all those photos of her. How could you not be deeply affected by this? It's like knowing her for the very first time and she's your MOTHER.Once you get used to the idea of all this and come to terms with it,you'll have to tell us about some of the photos and any resemblances you observe.

Well of course you are overwhelmed seeing your own mother.I am so glad you have this opportunity.

What treasure. Glad for you.

Such a happy day for you.

I know - its frought with emotions...

But what a wonderful gift to have.

Hugs to you!

Yes how lucky you are to have that link to your past. God bless the people who invented photography. Steve in Baltimore County.

She touched your heart, from over the years, into the here and now, and you felt her eyes on you through the photos. Lovely that you could see how she was.

How wonderful!

What a treasure for you! Truly a gift from the past, and one that you'll be able to share with your kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids, too.

I'm very happy for you.

George, my heart is full of joy for you today.

Oh how wonderful. You have written about your family here in the GP and it is important to you and I'm so glad that the family shared the photos of your mom.

A very gentle suggestion. If you want to make a keepsake on the net, for your family and the next generation, you may want to check out the link below. It's free. I use the windows movie maker to import my photos and make a movie with music. I think it's a great way to share memories.

Here is a link that might be useful: Window's movie maker

I think I sort of understand. A year or so ago, I too was given a huge box I had never seen that was loaded with pictures of my mother as a baby up through young woman. She was an only child born late to her parents, and the pictures just oozed with adoration. I had my mother until I was a teenager, at least. But I understand the "wreck" part. I was a mess for days. And I'm going to see my maternal relatives for the first time in 25 years in a couple of months to share/attempt an ID on some things. What a treasure you received.

Treasure, good way to phrase it. I have been into genealogy for at least a dozen years. I have the privilege of having my parents until late middle age, but not having lived in proximity of my extended family for most of my life, knew precious little about them aside from disjointed snippets of my folk's recollections. There was a void I needed to fill.

I can only imagine how it must have affected you and of course it was emotional.

Copy those pictures as quickly as possible and share them with every relative you know. When I used to go to auctions, there were often boxes of family photos in the mix to be lost forever. There are also people who keep family photos to themselves and won't share, thinking they'll be safe forever. It only takes one generation down the line for them to be lost.

My cousin out west and I had both started on a crusade to contact as many cousins and distant relatives as possible and get copies of photos they may each have in their possession and make them available in digital format to any of our kin. The more they're shared, the better chance they have of being preserved for posterity.

I'm so happy for you.

Yes, "treasure" is a great word, dirtdriver. We have about 20 reels of super8 film about our young family. It's a treasure to us. I'm in the process of converting the super8 to DVD at a big box store.After that, I can take the DVD and work it anyway I know how and then share it with our kids and family.

Found in the box a parcel, tied with string, of 11 letters from my mother to her brother. Learning a lot about my family that I never knew. She even mentions meeting my father at a social. I don't know what kind of a social. She said he is quite handsome. She was teaching grade school at the time. I was born almost exactly 2 years from the date of that letter. I'm a little overwhelmed. And I still haven't reached the bottom of the box.