... and now you know the rest of the story ... GOODNIGHT

Hello Americans . . . stand by for news!" This was Paul Harvey's tag-line. A radio host for over 50 years he began a feature in 1976 called, "The Rest of the Story." I loved listening to it. I couldn't wait to hear the "rest". I now have my own "rest of the story." A number of years ago, when we were attending Expo 86 in Vancouver, my aunt gave me a couple of "Rahier" family documents. One was a short letter to my grandfather, Servais Joseph Rahier, from his teacher, Professor Silvestre, in the area of Heusy,Verviers, Belgium, two or three were postcards, one of a church and one of a home in the city of Verviers. The postcard of the home was signed Rosa Rahier. As a genealogist I am always looking for clues, so I had the letters translated. There were no clues .... nothing new, but they are treasured keepsakes. His teacher tells of changes in the city since Servais and his family had left. The letters are in French and from a man who obviously cared for this young student, my grandfather ... Fast forward almost 25 years and I received an email last year from Leonard in Santa Rosa, California, with whom I have researched my Rahier family. He asked me if I knew who Servais Joseph Rahier was. Off course ... he was my grandfather! Leonard, in turn, had received an email from a gentleman who operates a small historical museum in Belgium.

"Hello I am historian of the area of Verviers (Belgium) I have just discovered a dated letter 1901, with 6 photographs of Rosthern and Servias Joseph Rahier who writes to his former professor in Heusy (Verviers) The photograph represents Servais with the harvest of 1912. 2 and 3. Beating. 4 Express train leaving the station of Rosthen for Duck Lake. 5 the Rahier house in the North of Rosthern to 2 miles and half. 6 a group of Four men who draw with the rifle in front of a lake In the letter Served known as qu' it have 2à Hectares of ground He says qu' he had on December 28, 1897 a little sister who bears the name of Guillemine and on April 11, 1901 a brother of the name of Georges -- Could you tell me if there exists the downward one of this family."

My grandfather left Belgium in 1895,with his parents and his sister Anne Marie, who was actually born on a previous seven year emigration to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was nine years old when they left Belgium for the second time. "They arrived in the spring ... with little more than the clothes they wore and some hand-baggage and $100 in his (father, Gilles's) pocket." He told me that he remembered the Sunlight Soap billboards when they arrived in Canada (probably Quebec). The letter, dated 14 June 1901, was written to his teacher in Heusy. It tells of their farm, their crops, and even the birth of his sister Guillamine (Minnie) and a little brother, George. Even then, Grandpa, and possibly his father, were amazing photographers. Now years later they have come full circle, not to Canada, through a historian in Belgium, to a man in California to me, his granddaughter, in Utah. WOW ... I was and still am amazed and speechless. Miracle! Technology has given us so many opportunities , especially in family history. Another emotional moment ... for me they all are ... and now you know ... the rest of the story .... GOOD NIGHT! (the letter and pictures can be viewed in this movie clip.