It was 1997 or 1998, I was in my early 30s, I had my first computer and an AOL account and I wanted to trace my family tree and hopefully find two of my first cousins. I grew up looking at the same two photos on my grandmother's TV set of two girls, a little older than me. They are the daughters of one of my mom's older brothers. We lost track of them sometime after their father died in 1969. To shorten up the story, the older cousin found me first! But in the meantime, my mother gave me an old notebook which contained two surprises. Part of the notebook contained hand written recipes for various home remedies (not too sure I'd like to try any of them!). Flip the notebook over and it contained a veritable gold mine of genealogical information for 4 generations of my grandmother's family. It started with my second great-grandparents George Slater and Alice Eckersley of Bolton, Lancashire, and their children. All birthdates, marriage date and place of George and Alice, death dates for George and Alice as well as their children who died young. It then moved on to my great-grandparents George Bernard Slater, of Bolton, and Agnes Hart, of Hindley and Bolton, recording their marriage date and place (they were married in the U.S. shortly after Agnes's arrival) as well as the births of their children. My grandmother updated the notebook with her marriage to my grandfather and the births of their four children. My mother updated the notebook with her marriage to my father and the births of my siblings and me. She also updated some other information in the notebook. I am now the caretaker of the "Slater Notebook". I have updated to include the marriages of my siblings and me, the births of my brother's children, the marriage of my niece and the birth of my grand-niece. I will eventually pass the notebook on to my niece. The book is very fragile now, with the oldest ink fading. It is kept in an archival sleeve inside of a waterproof, fireproof box. It is scanned and transcribed. It is one of my most prized possessions.
Terri
Terri
