Today, I headed off to the second day of the Anglo-Celtic Connection Conference with an ambrotype in my pocket, the one I wrote about in this blog in January 2008. After two lectures on the use of DNA testing in genealogy (fascinating but an expensive proposition for someone with loads of female relatives; it's easier tracking down relatives through male markers), I hurried to the market they'd set up in the huge foyer of Library Archives Canada. I bought a couple of Colleen Fitzpatrick's books where the lady herself was waiting to sign them. 
Rather deviously, I asked her about ambrotypes and while she pointed out the section in Forensic Genealogy which explains them, I drew the ambrotype from my bag. "Oh yes," she said, reaching out to examine the little case with the ornate cover. She opened it and pointed out the hallmarks of an ambrotype: the black background, the low contrast. I mentioned the book I'd studied before and she nodded, saying she knew the author. She told me the photo would be about 1855 and while I was formulating my next question, she suddenly asked: "Have you looked in the back?"
"No," I replied, startled. The case is already broken and battered, and I'd always handled it gingerly.
With a quick gesture, she removed the back. Stunned, I grappled for my glasses. "C.W.E!" I stammered. "This is my husband's great-great-grandfather! He was born in 1814 in Lincolnshire; he was a solicitor...." I suddenly found myself bursting into tears. I'm not sure if any of you who aren't researching your own family trees will understand why, but Colleen Fitzpatrick certainly did.
"This is one of those rare moments," she said, coming around the table to give me a hug. "I can't promise the rest of you such dramatic results," she said to the rather astonished people lining up for their books. All of them seemed to be clutching photographs too! She lent me her cell phone to call the Resident Fan Boy, but he wasn't home from church yet, and elder daughter had to feign enthusiasm instead...
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2 comments:
OMG I am so excited for you! Was RFB thrilled to bits when you got home and told him?
He's pleased, but nowhere nearly as emotional as I am. We family historians find the information, record the information, and therefore own the information. We are regarded by our patient families as being somewhere between birdwatchers and trainspotters on the loopiness scale. That's our tragedy...
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