Genealogy Happy Dance

So my husband has returned from Oregon. His father has not passed, but is in a comatose state, and expected to die soon. So, the kids have begun the process of setteling the estate. They started by going through his personal belongings. Surprisingly there were no fights. Each child got what they wanted. What a peaceful way to deal with stressful circumstances. Anyhow, Tuesday morning after he got back to Virginia, he unpacked everything in the living room. He had told me very little about what he had brought home. Boy was I in for a surprise. He started by handing me two letter size boxes. I opened the first and was surprised to find his fathers high school diploma. The second held his mothers diploma, and their wedding invitation, and marriage license. I was so happy, and he knew I would be. He then told me that his brother and sister had wanted to throw them away. What? I am so glad they didn't. Before he had left I had mentioned that I didnt want any paperwork thrown away. No letters or anything because you just never know what "innocent" information it may contain that can give me a key to getting new information. A name, a date, and address, anything. I think he got a little sick of me mentioning it everytime we spoke, but at least he got the idea. Thinking that was all he had brought home, I was very pleased. Then he handed me this strange little white leather apron with a triangular flap on the front. ??? I had no idea what this was. I lifted the flap and there was his grandfathers name and initiation dates and such for the Masonic lodge he was a part of. I had no idea which lodge it was until now. More info. YEAH! Then he handed me a ziploc freezer bag with some yellowed papers in it. When I pulled the papers out, I saw it was his grandmothers highschool memory book, or senior year journal. It was well worn, with lots of newspaper clippings and photos. Most of it is unimportant to me, but our high school commencement program was in it, as was her wedding announcement. That contained some info for me. He then handed me a large stack of photos most of which I had seen when I put his fathers scrapbook together. However in this stack was his fathers draft card. Yeah! Then he started unpacking odds and end stuff, mainly knick knacks. In the odds and ends was a medallion locket. It was his grandmothers and has her initials on the back. It is flat like a coin. When I opened it, it had a picture of her mother and father. I had never seen these pictures so this was exciting. All in all, I got lots more stuff, and stuff that most genealogist would love to have, and I now know that I have trained my husband well in the art of family archiving. Oh yeah he also brought home a cool crazy quilt done with mainly satins that were his grandmothers gowns from when she performed. We have always loved this quilt and when we were home in August he almost packed it in our bag, but thought twice and decided not to. As it turned out, we got it anyway, so it didnt matter. TTFN, Miki