12 Days of Family and Genealogy - Great Grandma's Gallstones

This post is part of my series of the 12 days I spent with my parents visiting family and doing genealogy research.

Yesterday I wrote about my great grandpa's false teeth that my aunt has kept over the decades. My aunt was a middle school health teacher and her grandparents gifted her things that might interest her. I mentioned yesterday that she showed me two things from the box she pulled off her shelf. One was the teeth. Here's the other:

 

Great grandma's gallstones! In April 1974, my great grandmother, Magdalena Haefner Eck had surgery to remove her gallstones. Dr. Ratke was her doctor. Originally the stones were preserved in formaldehyde, but my aunt dumped it out and just kept the stones (and what appears to be a gross slick of formaldehyde at the bottom of the jar). What a wonderful present from your grandma! I wonder if she wrapped it up.