Denise Levenick over at The Family Curator has challenged us Genea-Bloggers to a treasure hunt.  Here’s the deal:

Select your destination. You probably have a genealogy Magic Cupboard in your house, too. Or maybe it’s a Secret Desk, a Treasure chest, or a Box of Wonders. (Some people call them a rat’s nest, Fibber McGee’s Closet, or just plain “stuff”.) It’s the place you put those valuable photos, documents, or relics to take care of “later.” The longer you live in one place, the more the magic grows.

Make a plan (ie Treasure Map) to organize, preserve, document, return to rightful owners, pass on to relatives, or maybe even eliminate, keeping in mind the Sally Jacobs’ archival advice that we don’t have to save everything.

Post your Plan/Treasure Map to your blog on or before Sept 30, 2008 AND send me an email with a link to your blog. Write Treasure Map in the subject line. A list of bloggers who have accepted the challenge will be posted at The Family Curator.

Tackle that project. Post reports to your blog if you wish or ask for help if you get stuck. Let us know if you find some good tips to keep things moving or some greas archival supplies.

Treasure! Post an article on your blog or share a photograph of your once-buried treasure.

Over the last few months, I have already collected and organized all of the “stuff” I have around the house.  I’ve gone through everything and I pretty much know what the treasures are; now it’s just a matter of of scanning, copying, and entering it.

But there is one stack of “stuff” that I have yet to go through and explore.  That would be a box of stock certificates and documents that my paternal grandmother and great-grandmother had.  So here’s the plan (aka treasure map):

  1. Sort through the papers and organize by company.
  2. Determine if the companies still exist (or absolved into other companies).
  3. Determine if the stocks are still “valid” and if so, are they “transferable.”
  4. Report my progress/findings in later posts.

Wish me luck!  And who knows, maybe I will find a buried treasure in more ways than one!