This morning I decided to begin cleaning and putting away some of the "treasures" I found while cleaning out my mother-in-laws condo. This eventually lead me to take a few photos of the various items and while trying to find some room in my cupboards, I happened upon this spoon.It belongs to me. I purchased it from an ebay seller back in 2001. Actually, I was in the ebay market for anything Tiffin, Ohio and when I saw this souvenir spoon, I decided to get it as a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law who has lived here entire life (save currently) in Tiffin.
She never got the gift. I decided to keep it along with several other's that I found out on ebay. My reason: I went to college in Tiffin, married a fellow from Tiffin and lived there for several years following my wedding day. The spoon collection remained in my kitchen, forgotten....until today.
Back when I purchased the spoon, I wrote the sellers to see if they had any knowledge of the name of "H. R."--the initials on the back of the spoon. I was thrilled to find that they did know who the spoon originally belonged to.
After reading their e-mail, I filed it away with the spoon. Today, I decided to do a little detective work to see if I could find out any information on Helen and to find out how close the spoon selleres story was to the actual life of Helen Reif. I hopped on ancestry and was able to find a relation who had information on the entire Reif family. The seller's information was partially correct.
Helen M. Reif
Born: August 7, 1894 in California
Died: August 13, 1975 in California
Parents: John F. Reif and Caroline Ella Grammes
Sibling: Frederick William Reif
Sources:
Kovel, Ralph and Terry. Kovels' American Silver Marks: 1650 to the Present, Crown Publishers, New York, New York, 1989, page 368.
Lohse-Marzi Families from Ohio, Ancestry.com, Helen M. Reif
© 2010, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser
What an amazing story!!!!
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