GENEALOGY GOOD DEEDS 
Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness

Questing Heirs member Kathy Oehlman Latham has “paid it forward” by performing an Act of Genealogical Kindness for the unknown relatives of L. S. Cook.

photos: QHGS Newsletter April 2014

Kathy received some letters and photographs from her mother, Margaret Bailey Oehlman. Margaret had them because they had belonged to her father, Terry E. Bailey, and she knew that Kathy would want to have her grandfather’s correspondence since it was of genealogical interest. When Kathy examined the bundle, she decided to send scans of the photos and letters to the Sonoma County Genealogical Society (SCGS) just in case descendants of the letter writer/photographer still lived in Healdsburg or Windsor. Kathy knew nothing about L. S. Cook, the man who sent these letters and pictures to her grandfather whom he addressed as “Friend Terry” in the letters, but she assumed that her grandfather must have known Mr. Cook when he lived in Healdsburg and worked as a mechanic on both autos and airplanes because the photographs document the building by L. S. Cook of an airplane and a race car.

Photos of the race car clearly show background buildings in a town that one member of SCGS identified as Windsor, California; so, with Kathy’s permission, SCGS also gave copies of the scans to the Historical Photographs Department of the Sonoma County Library. Kathy’s “mystery photos” from 1928 and 1929 of the plane, its wings, struts, and hand-made machine parts, complete with individual shots of shock absorbers, pistons, and the disassembled motor with its propeller, were featured in the Spring 2014 edition of the SCGS journal, The Sonoma Searcher, accompanied by scans of the letters L. S. Cook wrote to Kathy’s grandfather.  

It is quite possible that Kathy will never find out if the photos and letters reach any of Mr. Cook’s descendants; but some day, far in the future, a genealogist looking for information about L. S. Cook may come across these documents and thank her silently for sharing them with SCGS. 

Why not “pay it forward” yourself and send scans of your old “mystery photos” to the genealogical or historical societies in your research area(s)? You may be contacted by people eager to identify the photos’ subjects; and, you will be preserving history, earning thanks from future genealogists.

RESEARCH NOTE: Have you been the recipient of a “Random Act of Genealogical Kindness?” Tell the QHGS Blogger about it by posting a comment below.