My 2 favorite documents - my 2nd great-grandpa's trip to America

Years ago my grandpa went into his safe and pulled out a small envelope (picture the ones that you put your hunting or fishing license in).  He pulled out 2 parchment documents that were folded up to fit (about 2"x3") and unfolded them for me.  They were his grandfather Jan Korstanje's discharge from the Dutch military from 1891 and his citizenship certificate from 1904.  I was in awe of these papers, picturing his grandfather carrying them around in his pocket.  He put them back in his safe but every once in awhile he'd get them out and show them to me.  When I got older and more in tune with my genealogy, it dawned on me that if they continued to be kept in that little envelope and being unfolded and folded, they'd eventually fall apart.

I pointed this out to my grandpa and he agreed.  He let me take them to Frames Unlimited and get them framed, complete with an archival mat for each and museum glass to prevent sun damage.  I don't recall the cost but it was in the neighborhood of a couple hundred dollars.  He put them on a wall in his basement for awhile but eventually gave them to me.  I don't have my "genealogy-cave" that I eventually want that would allow me to display my "collection" so they have been wrapped in cloth and stored safely on a shelf in my closet.

 I got them out a couple of weeks ago because I'm trying to organize and get things done that I've been putting off.  One of the things I've put off forever is getting these scanned.  These are 16x20 frames which will give you an idea how big the certificates are - they won't fit on a flatbed scanner.  I've been pondering what to do for years, not wanting to remove them from their frames.  I finally got an idea.



If you're into genealogy you've heard of the Flip-Pal scanner.  It's a funny looking device that I consider(ed) too expensive to justify purchasing.  It allows you to scan 4x6 photos like a flatbed scanner but other scans you can do in pieces and the software will "stitch" it back together.  I've got a couple friends that use them and finally asked one of them if they thought it could accomplish scanning these through the glass.  She said that it would and offered to let me borrow hers.  It took me about 30 minutes total to unpack it, put batteries in it, figure out how to turn it on, make the scans of the 1st one and try to stitch it (which almost worked except for 2 spots that I didn't have enough overlap), go back and rescan the 1st and scan the 2nd and stitch them together.  It worked phenomenally.  She told me people use these to scan quilts even (which would be time-consuming).  I can't say enough good things about how well it worked and one of them is definitely on my future purchase list.



I'll blog more about Jan next as I shift to my grandpa's ancestry.  In the meantime, I wanted to share these 2 certificates that I treasure.