Merryl McRae is a natural skeptic. THE ALBUM also features a pair of family photos of Scott and Joan Mouse and their three daughters, Lindy, Marcy — and Merryl, then a toddler.
A recent call from an anonymous source, for example, claiming to have seen a report of a long-lost photo album featuring several of McRae’s ancestors went unanswered.
“I just figured it was a scam,” she said Wednesday.
But when the caller persisted, even contacting her husband, McRae quickly learned this instance was different.
Since first receiving notice less than two weeks ago, McRae has met several distant and some not-so-distant relatives from the Mouse family tree.
“It’s been a bit overwhelming — psycho-crazy,” said McRae, who grew up Merryl Mouse in Emporia. “And we’re still trying to put the pieces together.”
The connections stemmed from a recent Memphis, Tenn., television report about a photo album left inside a copy store back in 2008 or 2009.
As per store policy, the album was kept in a lost-and-found box for a year before it was to be destroyed.
But former store employee Jonathan Gibbs knew the album — sporting pictures of several generations of family members dating back to 1910 — was significant to somebody.
So he took it home with the hope of finding the rightful owners.
But the owners never stepped forward and Hibbs put the album in storage. He dusted off the album in 2012 after moving to Brooklyn, N.Y., and reached out to a Memphis television station.
The news broadcast was the key to unlocking the mystery.
Several Mouse family members saw the broadcast online and began connecting the dots.
McRae’s research quickly put her in contact with Brian Mouse — turns out they’re second cousins — who lives just outside Kansas City, Mo., near a farm where several of the photos appear to have been taken.
Since then, McRae set up a family page on Facebook for Mouse descendants. In less than a week, more than 55 have stepped forward.
“I knew a few of them, but not many,” she said. “That’s what makes this so exciting.”
After a series of phone calls to Gibbs, the album has been shipped to Brian Mouse, McRae said.
Plans are underway to set up a family reunion.
“I’m sure I’ve met some of these people before when I was a kid,” McRae said. “I really want to get to know them now.”
And while McRae, her cousins, siblings and other distant relatives continue to piece together this genealogical puzzle, one nagging mystery remains: nobody knows who owned the album.
“As far as we know, none of the Mouse family members ever lived in Memphis,” McRae said. “That’s what makes this so puzzling.”
But in a rapidly evolving case such as this, situations change by the hour.
By Wednesday evening, McRae contacted via Facebook another “distant cousin from a different branch of the tree. I’m waiting to hear back from him if any of his family lived in Memphis,” she said.
McRae, 62, has plenty of time on her hands to help unlock the mystery.
“This is about as exciting as it gets for a retired gym teacher,” she joked.
McRae is a retired physical education instructor at Iola Middle School. Her husband, John, is a State Farm Insurance agent and former Iola mayor.
Long-lost photo album features Iolan as a child
