Civil war ID ring!!!!

[Mark1985]

G.RICHARDSON.CO.K.57.MASS

 

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[Jim of PA]

 

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[bearbqd]

Have you been contacted by any magazines yet? This is definitely find of the year material. Simply unreal.

 

[Mark1985]

If all goes as planned this should be in the July issue of American Digger Magazine

 

[thecolonel]

Wonderful find. Great research to get the photo. Now complete the task and hunt down the family. Imagine the aww you would create nationally and personally to the kin. Goosebumps!

 

[steelheadwill]

Congrats on your epic find !!
(and classic 'diggers Fingers' )

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

At the time he had the ring the soldier was a member of the military so it is not actually a Family possession more of a military relic.

 

[Col.Philo95thNY]

Perhaps is a photo of him before being mustered into the regiment, as he looks to be in civilian clothes in the picture. have you tried finding a decendant? Keep us informed. Great find in a piece of history.

Col.Philo95thny

 

[Petrie502]

Definatly a BANNER FIND

 

[Keep On Diggin]

It would be a cool thing to locate any living relatives and return it to the closest one.

 

[BuckleBoy]

According to Ancestry.com Gustavus had two younger brothers at the time of the 1860 Census. Their names were Henry and Chas. (Charles)
There are two people (families) that include Gustavus in their family tree. They are the Ashley Schandelmayer Family Tree, and LMR Family Tree.
I have sent both owners of those trees internal Ancestry.com emails telling them of this thread. Again, I hope I wasn't wrong for doing so. It could take days or even weeks for either of them to answer as Ancestry.com does not send the email on to a personal address, it just holds it within the site until you come back to follow up.

Are they going to have an auction to the highest bidder among the descendants? Will the finder of the ring roll the dice to see which of the dozen descendants would get the "first chance" to buy the ring?

You involving the descendants in someone else's find goes across the line in my book. If I were the OP, I'd ask that this post--and my find--be deleted from the website. Discussion like this SHOULD NOT be happening in someone's PUBLIC finds thread ON THE BANNER.

Ethically I have thought this over for years. What to do, what to offer, what to give away, what to keep. I have come to grips with all these decisions, and made my choices, and I am comfortable with my ethics and morals now. I've had to think long and hard about these things. I want to be able to sleep at night. I encourage all detectorists to think about these ethical questions, about whose land finds were dug on, and what they will keep vs. try to return. If they think they don't need to consider those questions, they will one day find something valuable or rare enough that they'll have to think about them!

I would hope that the OP has considered these ethical questions too, and has come to his own answers. In that case, you who are trying to get him to act "your way" must remember that he has his sense of ethics, and you have yours.

But lets keep it off this thread. What the finder does is for him to decide. If it was found on private property, he might offer a reward to the owner of the property. Or not. He might choose to contact descendants. Or not. That is his choice, not yours. But it should in no way detract from his find. Or from his morality.

Although I think this type of discussion is essential to our hobby, I do not believe that this is the place for it. I believe that posts like this can reflect poorly on our hobby but that they SHOULD NOT be allowed to reflect poorly on us if they're having 15,300+ views like this one is!

It is the responsibility of the posters here to keep the replies civil, and the perception of our hobby Positive. I see that is a moral obligation FAR more important to the future of this hobby than the return of one ring lost four generations ago.


Regards,


Buckleboy

 

[jamesbibb]

I havent been following this thread. Only once to say nice find. Buck I agree with you 100%

Wtf

You people have officially lost your minds and crossed the line.
This thread is representitive of the crumble of what was once a nice place.

JB

 

[Jimmi]

I have been reading this off and on, and seeing all the " return to family " comments. But the guy who contacted the family and told them of this thread , whoah.. You did what??!!!! That was So not your place . I agree , delete this thread , before it makes trouble for the finder.

 

[thecolonel]

Man finds 150-year-old Civil War ring - CNN.com Video

 

[wetfly]

WTF?? Why would someone even think about doing anything with someone else's find? Go find your own relics to give away and let people make their own decisions on contacting or not!! I really can't believe someone did this without consulting the finder first man!! Completely wrong!

 

[DigitNY]

Pardon me for giving some un-asked for but realistic advice. I advise diggers not to simply hand over personal-ID military relics to the soldier's decendants. I know from my own experience as a relic-dealer that the majority of descendants care more about the relic's dollar-value than anything else. They'll sell grandpa's personal relics to buy a TV. If you doubt it, take a look at all the personal identified WW1 and WW2 relics for sale at shows and on Ebay.

Let me make clear, I am not saying we shouldn't return a 20th-Century civilian-usage item, like an engraved wedding ring or school ring. I'm just talking about high-value Historical Military relics. (A 20th-Century soldier's dogtag is not high-value.)

If a descendant can be contacted and he/she expresses interest in their soldier ancestor's high-value personal-identified relic, I'd give him/her "first shot" at buying it. If you simply give it to them, experience shows that the odds are better than 50/50 that it'll be for sale on Ebay (or somewhere else), sooner or later. Sad, but true.

I also think the odds are better than 50/50 that Mark's personal-ID civil war soldier's ring means more to him than it would to any of Pvt. Richardson's descendants.

Well said, great advice, lets hope everyone respects the finders privacy and not get all happy assed and do something they regret.

 

[stevejackson]

Banner find!! Much more interesting than 1/2 the stuff up there right now (every common gold coin seems to make it up there no matter the state)... I want to see this outstanding find on the banner and I hope you can locate the family to return it! Amazing find!!

a very nice suggestion.
it would be great if the ring can be returned to the orignal family.

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Canada Immigration

 

[doc-d]

Amazing find......and the question of relatives is difficult at best.........so many now some 150 years later....
No, it is the finders to do with as he pleases......would guess it would be awesome in a deserving museum with the history, but that is my opinion........
Great thread, God bless ya'll

 

[Dirtscanner]

Very nice find!

 

[Mark1985]

Up date here is a photo of the artical in American Digger thanks butch

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Congrats Mark!!!