An Empty Box

Files for each of my family branches

...or nearly empty. 

   When I started researching my family history I read that it was a good idea to start a file or box for each major family branch.  I didn't have any boxes, so grabbed the first thing I could find; some old magazine storage boxes and decided they would do until I could get something better. (The something better is starting from the bottom up --acid-free boxes sold with scrap-bookers in mind.  I got the first one as a Christmas present and will be getting three more in different colors soon!)
   The thing that is the most ironic is that the box on the left is my paternal grandfather's box.  I thought we would have nothing in that box since we didn't know a thing about my dad's grandfather.  The quest to know more about him filled the Thomas box so much that I don't think I could put one more document in that box if I tried.  I hope my new lovely storage boxes come soon!

Me & Grandma
Mom's College Graduation

 

   The box on the far right is for my maternal grandmother's line.  Even though I have probably spent the most time in my life with my maternal grandma, her box is the one that has remained the emptiest!  Every time I have logged on to ancestry.com and thought "I will look up more about the Goffs" either I couldn't find more than I already knew, or I was disheartened and just didn't feel motivated to look further. 

   My grandmother, born Virginia Goff, was the sweetest grandma anyone could ever want.  She thought of others first and I always knew I was unconditionally loved by her just because.  At her funeral a lady from her church told a story about an outing on which they were going the wrong direction.  Apparently Grandma knew they were going the wrong way.  Later she told one of the other ladies, "Yes, I knew we were going the wrong way."  When asked why she didn't say something Grandma said, "I didn't want to hurt her feelings."  She was just like that!  

Virginia & brother
Jimmy
being very bad

   When beginning my current family research my jumping off point has always been the family tree I started in grade school.  At that time I asked the oldest family members available and wrote down what they told me.  The farthest back my grandma could tell me about on her paternal side was only as far back as her father.  She told me she never knew his parents; they had both died.  As a child I had visions of a baby in a basket on a doorstep.  When I contacted the other genealogy buff of the family she also said that my grandmother's father, William Goff,  and all his siblings were put in an orphanage when their mother died. I also discovered that my great grandfather's father, Thomas Goff, married again and had many more children.  To tell you the truth, my heart just wasn't in looking up more information about a guy who could put his 6 kids in an orphanage then start a new family.   I couldn't reconcile how my sweet grandma and her fun loving sister could have come from such a background.  It didn't make sense to me. 

   That was before I got a reply from another ancestry.com member with Thomas Goff in her tree.   Now I think my Goff box won't be empty much longer.