Haven't Lost My Mind... Found it... The Photo, I Mean

A few weeks ago (January 28), I wrote about how I discovered that Kate Zorgdrager's given name was Tryntje. The entire time I was working on that blog post, I thought I was losing my mind. In my minds eye I could see a colorful certificate, complete with bluebirds and colorful flowers, documenting the marriage of Kate Zorgdrager and John Fonkert. I knew I had a photo of it, but after searching high and low, through photo albums and boxes, I could not find it.

Well, I just found it last night!

This scan is from a 3.5" x 5" print, which tells you something about how many years ago I took the photo -- sometime in the 1980s before I even knew genealogy existed. It also means I should have a color negative or transparency (slide) of it somewhere.

Why just a negative or transparency?  You see, I am quite certain I do not have the certificate itself.  As I recall, my Dad had borrowed some old family photos -- and, I think, also the marriage certificate -- from my Dutch aunt. I laid them out on the floor of the garage and photographed them. My memory says that they all then went back to my aunt (died 1902), and despite queries to her children, never saw the again.

So much family memorabilia is lost between generations. Thankfully, I took photos of this certificate.