A Serendipity Strike!

ser•en•dip•i•ty |ˌserənˈdipitē|

noun 

the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way : a fortunate stroke of serendipity | a series of small

I was just minding my own business on this Saturday when I received a small package from my mother. I opened it up and saw a photo envelope, the kind that you would get from your local drugstore when you picked up your pictures. My mother or someone had written on it, 1989 Ireland with my maternal grandparents name on it. Inside the package, there were quite a few postcards that my grandparents must have picked up during their trip to Ireland. There were also some pictures that they took. Then I saw it. A postcard of my great-grandfather’s (William E. McCormack) house. My jaw hit the floor. My first question was, “Where on earth did my mom find this?” My second question was “How or why did someone make a postcard with my great-grandfather’s house on it?”

McCormack House Postcard – circa 1910 [1]

As  you see, the postcard obviously has some “damage.” There is the scratches on the tree. I don’t know if the writing at the bottom of the picture is original or added at some point afterwards. It has been “used” or mailed before. The stamp on the back is a one cent stamp and the postmark is 3 Oct 1910.

This is a very incredible find and I don’t know how my mother came across this! So I can’t thank her enough for finding and sending it to me!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you learned something!

Footnote;

1. picture of the William E. McCormack house in Otter Lake, Michigan, , 2015, privately held by Jeff Ford , [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Lebanon, Tennessee, 2015