Back to the scrapbook

When did I do this project? 2013? 2014?

I'm doing all the work for my genealogy/geography class this quarter?  It's always easy to count on my great great grandfather Maier Zunder (1829-1901) because he was so talented and remarkable.

And also my favorite.

There's a seven volume Zunder Family Scrapbook at the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven.  I'm only interested in the first two volumes.  Eventually we photographed them because they were falling apart so bad.  This section was during Maier's lifetime and mainly consisted of newspaper articles and ephemera.  When I first looked at them, I was so thrilled to find out so much information about him, it never occurred to me who had compiled them.

Until I found a hand-written promissory note at the Colony.  Bunch of men borrowed $720 from Maier Zunder in 1888.  I'm sure it had something to do with the cemetery\

Clearly he wrote it; he was the bank president.

I looked at it and looked at it.  It looked so familiar, where had I seen it before.  Where?

Then I realized....from the scrapbooks

That Maier Zunder's writing that labels the articles.  Which meant Maier Zunder had kept his own scrapbook!  Of course, who else?  He starts the scrapbook our with obituaries for his wife Regina, he doesn't remarry for 7 years.

So that's why we photographed the scrapbook (thanks to my partners in crime, Charl and Mary Ann)  That's why I went to the trouble and expense of having the articles translated, printed on high quality paper and bound.  I had one set and gave another set to Jewish Historical Society.\

Because they're important