Latest finds -- SCA and Deeds
Today's main project has been digging through some files -- mostly because they are stacked in front of the next bookshelves that I want to deal with. So I'm finally continuing the great filing project that Niki started while she was living with me.
I just found the big archive of papers that goldsquare donated -- a mix of event stuff, formational paperwork for the Grand Council, and most of the key papers around the Crisis. So when it does come time to write up the history of What the Hell Happened in 1994, I know where the materials are.
But the really interesting bit was the manila envelope that has been sitting there for months and months, that I finally got around to looking into. Which is full of deeds. Mostly for land around Philadelphia. From around 1780. And I don't mean facsimiles -- I mean real cut indentures, on parchment, with wax seals on ribbons.
I *assume* these are related to Jane's genealogical research, but I'm not sure where they came from and I'm not certain whether they pertain directly to her family. (Niki, did you see any context for these?) But they are Incredibly Cool. ladymacgregor was over this afternoon, picking up cat stuff for a local shelter, and had great fun looking at one of them. These things are Legal Documents Dammit, written in utterly beautiful penmanship, some of them *big* -- like, a couple of feet across. They're all folded up (and look like they've *been* folded up for their entire 200+ years), so they have to be treated delicately, but the parchment is still in pretty good shape, and they're mostly legible.
So I have yet another fascinating mystery project here, and yet another case where I dearly wish I could ask Jane where the heck these came from. In the meantime, I've put them in the empty box labeled "acid-free", which I assume Jane bought for more or less this purpose...
I just found the big archive of papers that goldsquare donated -- a mix of event stuff, formational paperwork for the Grand Council, and most of the key papers around the Crisis. So when it does come time to write up the history of What the Hell Happened in 1994, I know where the materials are.
But the really interesting bit was the manila envelope that has been sitting there for months and months, that I finally got around to looking into. Which is full of deeds. Mostly for land around Philadelphia. From around 1780. And I don't mean facsimiles -- I mean real cut indentures, on parchment, with wax seals on ribbons.
I *assume* these are related to Jane's genealogical research, but I'm not sure where they came from and I'm not certain whether they pertain directly to her family. (Niki, did you see any context for these?) But they are Incredibly Cool. ladymacgregor was over this afternoon, picking up cat stuff for a local shelter, and had great fun looking at one of them. These things are Legal Documents Dammit, written in utterly beautiful penmanship, some of them *big* -- like, a couple of feet across. They're all folded up (and look like they've *been* folded up for their entire 200+ years), so they have to be treated delicately, but the parchment is still in pretty good shape, and they're mostly legible.
So I have yet another fascinating mystery project here, and yet another case where I dearly wish I could ask Jane where the heck these came from. In the meantime, I've put them in the empty box labeled "acid-free", which I assume Jane bought for more or less this purpose...