Letters
Email wdytyaeditorial@immediate.co.uk
Write to WDYTYA? Magazine, Eagle House, Colston Avenue, Bristol BS1 4ST
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY ARCHIVES
Being the last of my siblings living I have amassed a large quantity of family records and letters etc going back to the 1930s. Your tip in ‘Q&A’ in the March issue to scan old family letters prompted me to do just that. Some of the documents are very faint, but scanning them allows me to manipulate the image and adjust various settings so that the writing is legible again.
Some of the letters, such as letters of condolence sent to my mum after my brother’s death in 1958, bring tears to my eyes today, 63 years later. Other letters bring to memory long-forgotten years of life in the family, and there is also correspondence from family solicitors such as wills, affidavits, codicils etc, and even a letter from an English-speaking priest in Istanbul who visited my sister in hospital when she had been hit by a lorry while hitchhiking in
