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Tybee
2-9-23, 12:22pm
One of the family letters I found yesterday was an envelope of tax documents showing stock dividends for the year 1964. This was interesting to me because these were mostly stocks picked by my great-grandfather, who was a banker. She inherited most of the stocks, along with some Savannah Sugar Refinery that she would have bought on her own. So I decided it would be fun to make a mini portfolio of these stocks in my own account. I had to track some of these companies and it looks like one was acquired at some point by an Austrian company and is OTC and I don't like holding those, and I can't figure out what happened to Savannah Sugar, whether it is owned by US Sugar or Louis Dreyfus LLC, neither of which I can buy. So I guess won't buy those.

It was interesting to look at the dividends in today's dollars--if I can find a chart for what dividend was paid that year I can figure out how much she owned, but it kind of looked from rough math like the amount that my dad inherited. He sold all the stock and put three kids through college with it. But she was getting some substantial income each month from dividends, more than from her social security. It was also fun to see how she held the stock--she put things in her name with my dad, her son, as survivor. She pre-deceased my grandfather, and I think my dad just sent the dividends back to him to live on until he died a few years later.

I don't know why I find this so interesting, but I'm intrigued to see what people got in Social security, and what they paid for taxes, and how my parents were sending money to both of their parents. It's also interesting to think that my great grandfather was born in 1852, so saw the development of the modern NYSE and lived through the Crash and still had his money in stocks and that money paid for his great-grandchildren to go to college...

iris lilies
2-9-23, 1:25pm
I agree that is very interesting to have family financial records back from that long ago. I have to wonder if my great grands participated in stock picking in any way. If they did, it would be on my mother side of the family, not on my dad’s side.

My mom’s side of the family was more about farms and selling farms to send children through college.

My dad’s side of the fsmily…never had much in assets or formal education.

pinkytoe
2-9-23, 2:08pm
When DH went through old family papers, he found quite a few early 1900s bank stock certificates and docs showing 1-2% interest in various town lots. His grandfather founded several small town businesses and eventually went bankrupt as the story goes he was "too trusting."

Tybee
2-10-23, 8:53am
That is too bad he went bankrupt--he sounds like he was investing in both the market and in land. I do think there was more swindling going on, and I know both of my grandfathers lost their businesses during the Depression.

IL, on my mom's side they were farmers and sold land--I don't think they did anything in the stock market.