02.06.07
Wonders & Oddities of eBay
Out of the blue on my birthday, I get an email from a woman wondering if I’d like to buy a painting from her on eBay. It was supposedly a picture of my family tree. Of course, I was suspicious. There are a lot of Beavers.
Grandma bought a book when I was a child purporting to be of our family. It had an embossed cover, etc. etc. Sadly, they had just pulled everyone with the last name out of phone books across the country (pre-internet). I figured this might be a similar scam.
But the email listed several names that I recognized from my limited research. So I went to look. Not through her link, but I searched from eBay for the item she listed. It was a legitimate item, old and partly bug eaten. The pictures weren’t great, but the description mentioned even more names that I knew.
I called the number listed in the auction and asked more questions. She found my name on Ancestry.com, as well as posting an announcement on the site about the painting. She was friendly and gave helpful answers. She told me she would email me when she sent it, and asked if I would email her when I got it.
I bought it.
It’s in somewhat worse shape than the picture showed, but it’s definitely old. It’s not my taste in art, but it’s not badly done. But it’s an heirloom. There’s a picture of it after the cut.
I guess I need to dust off my genealogy data and figure this puzzle out.
It’s a heck of a random birthday present.
