The Family Jewels

The 16th Edition of Smile For The Camera: "Bling, Ancestor, Bling" which will be hosted by Thomas at Geneabloggers

[Bling Ancestor banner provided by the footnoteMaven, also of "Shades of the Departed" fame.]

Joseph Marschall/Marshall, Sr.

[My grandfather, a.k.a. Big Paw Paw]

This is his World War I Victory Medal. 

U.S. Army, 29th Company, 3rd Group, 165th Brigade

Joel Arthur Martin

[My Great-Grandfather, a.k.a. "Pop"; he's my grandmother's (Paw Paw's) father]

Fairly certain that this is his Cortebert Railroad Pocketwatch.  The second hand still works, but the pocketwatch is in need of refurbishing.

Rettie Maye Martin

[My grandmother on my Dad's side; a.k.a. Paw Paw, daughter of Joel (above) and wife of Big Paw Paw.] This is a picture of her wearing her 3 strand pearls.

Speaking of 3 Strand Pearls...

My father gave my mother these pearls around 1958.  They're costume jewelry with rhinestones, but they photograph well, don't you think?  My mother gave them to me on my wedding day in 1994, and one day they'll be my daughter's pearls.

...And One More "Pearl"

Remember the beautiful Pearl Williams Pointer?  Well, this pocketwatch below belonged to her father, A.O. Williams.  It was passed down to Pearl.  Then it was passed down to her son Forrest Pointer, my husband's grandfather.  It was made by Elgin in 1904 with 7 jewels, and was one of 110,000 made.  It's keywind (hunter's case) and lever set.  The Fob attached to it is rather interesting.  It reads "The South Bend Malleable Range, All Ways Preferable. Trade Mark."  On the back it reads: "The Malleable Range Mfg. Co., South Bend, IN, U.S.A."

Good Genealogy Luck

Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings has sent out his Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge.  The directions for tonight are:

1) When have you had a dose of good genealogy luck? What document or resource did you find just by happenstance or chance? By being in the right place at the right time? By finding a family history treasure in your family's attic or basement? By finding a helpful document or reference without even looking for it?

2) Tell us about it in Comments to this post, in Comments on Facebook, or in a blog post of your own.

O.K., I have to admit that this is an easy and pleasurable task for me.  Please see my post entitled "Can You Say Genealogical Jackpot?" and read all about my "chance happening of a fortunate event."  I'm still identifying, documenting, investigating, and photographing these items, and I've even posted the stories of some of them.  Thanks Randy!  What a great idea.  It's like finding them all over again [almost].