Surprise family history

I do infrequent google searches for the people in my family, and one day I was googling my grandfather, and found something I'd not seen before. The way the listing read at first sounded like a scraping site that had stolen the information from elsewhere—most likely this blog—so of course, I had to check it out to find out what it was and if I needed to find a way to complain. What I found was fascinating.

My grandparents came here in 1952. My grandfather had just gotten his accounting degree, and went to work for a series of different companies doing accounting work before eventually going into work for himself as a CPA. He was a bit of a pack rat, and that grew worse as he grew older. Towards the end of his life, my grandmother worked at getting him to let go of some of the things he had collected over the years.

I think this was how this entry was born. The entry, which I had thought was scrobbled, is a summary of a collection that now resides at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), along with a small history of my grandfather's life. It is called Sam Hillinger Rhodes Brothers Ten Cent Store Collection, 1910-1950. Apparently Sam came across these photos and cards while he was working for the Modern Home Builders company in Lynnwood when they purchased the Rhodes Ten Cent Stores. He kept them for many years, finally donating them in 1996.

I remember the family going through all his things after his death in 2000. It's nice to know that his collecting has managed to preserve some history that might otherwise be gone forever. Who knows what kind of use this might end up being put to in the future?