The photos above are both of my paternal grandmother. She's the oldest child in the lower photo. I don't have a scanner, so I used my digital camera to photograph some old photos I have. (You can see the evidence of the flash in the photographs.) The reason I did this is that I was having some email communication with a half-second cousin once removed. (Don't bother to try to figure that out. My great-great-grandfather is her great-grandfather, but we are descended from different wives.) Kay doesn't have much information about our shared grandfather's first family, so I emailed these photos to her so she could add them to her collection.
In turn, Kay sent me photocopies of two large photographs of family reunions that took place in 1909 and 1923. My great-great grandfather was a Civil War veteran who fought in an Indiana regiment (I think). My father told me once that he remembered his Great-Grandpa Swisher. My dad, as a young boy, was frightened of him because of his long beard. I have been interested in the Civil War for a long time, and it's always meant a lot to me to have had an ancestor who fought in that conflict. It was so cool to actually see what he looked like.
Not only is Great-Great-Grandpa Swisher in the reunion photographs, my great grandmother Rose is in them too. It was easy for me to spot her because her daughter--the woman pictured above--looked a lot like her. My mother has a photograph that was taken shortly after I was born with me sitting on Great-Grandma Rose's lap and my mother and grandmother standing nearby. Someday I'd like to get that "four generations" photo from Mom's collection. I love the idea of the linked generations. I have no memories of Grandma Rose, but I like having the evidence that she knew me. Mom has said that Grandma Rose felt sorry for me because I had to wear casts on my legs when I was about a year old (I was pigeon-toed). Somehow, I find it comforting that she felt empathy for me.
Then yesterday we had a mini family reunion with another cousin in the nursing home where my mom is—Michael and I and two of my brothers got together with my second cousin DeDe there. DeDe's mom Lois was my dad's first cousin, but my grandmother raised her for much of her childhood, so Lois and my dad always considered each other siblings. So DeDe is really more like a first cousin to us. She is 15 or 16 years older than I am, approximately the same age that my oldest brother Carl would have been if he hadn't passed away. One of the things DeDe brought to my mom yesterday was some very old photos of Carl as a little boy. It was so good to see the photographs again.
I don't do a lot of geneology / family trees, but I've always been really interested in tracing my family heritage in other ways. For instance, I have my dad's eyes, but my nose and my mouth are more typical of my mom's family. And I think I got my story-telling ability from my dad, while my logical, analytical abilities come from my mom. I share my love of puns and enjoyment of absurdist humor with my second brother, and my interest in writing comes from my maternal grandmother and one of my maternal aunts. Those are just a few specific examples I've identified over the years. Tracing these kinds of links has always been important to me. It provides me with a sense of connection and rootedness that I value, even as I've chosen to be different from my family of origin in several significant ways.
Emails, photographs, and meetings--these are the reasons I've been thinking about family and how it still influences me. I'd love to hear about your family heritage too.
17 comments:
Family heritage... what a path to trod!
I loved opening this post and seeing the old photos, what is it about such things? They are inviting in a mysterious way, aren't they? Every time I see a photo like the ones shown here or others, I pause and want to know more about who I am looking at.
My own family heritage is too long and crazy to put in this comment, what I know of it anyway. Let it suffice to say that ethnically/spiritually I am 1/2 Irish, 1/4 Italian, 1/4 Eastern European Jewish.
My mother's family is the one I grew up around the most- Irish but there are few photos and for many reasons, I am not sure how I relate to this part of my family.
My father's Italian-American family connections are all but lost to me, nary a photo and almost no detail. My father's surname is the most common Italian name, so research is a challenge.
My father's Jewish family is actually I know the most about. I think that despite not growing up around this part of the family, I am most like them in many ways - intellectually, socially and otherwise.
As always, thank you for this provocative post Ruth!
Great photos! I love old photos and family history. My reasons are for trying to sort out the backgrounds of the messes in my own life. And it's cool to see what they looked like and what they wore.
I love the photos! Looking at family heritage the way you described is so interesting and fun. My Dad found the blog of some distant cousin last year which had some photos I'd never seen of my Grandma and Great Grandparents before...that was so exciting for me since they're no longer around. There was even a photo of the family farm in Norway.
I love old photos, old movies, old houses, old anything. I love examining old family photos. Thanks for sharing yours!
I have a great photo of my paternal grandfather as a dapper young man that I keep on display. He was quite troubled most of his life but during his last years, for some reason, he found equanimity. He was a delight to be around during that time.
A couple of my brothers are really into genealogy and have traced our family on my mother's side back to England in the 1400's. It is pretty fun to visit with them about their findings.
I love family history and stories...gives us a deeper sense of identity, I think...
What awesome pictures! I love them. What a beautiful woman! How cool that you are getting more info and pictures on your family. I do the same thing and take pictures of my old pictures instead of using a scanner, it's easier and quicker and almost looks as good!
:0) Sharon
My parents made my brother an album for his 40th birthday recently, and while they were at it made me a copy too. It was great - full of copies of all the old photos they had in their possession of my grandparents, their parents, and various other relatives. I love the slightly fierce unsmiling looks of some of the Victorian era pictures - of course, it may be that the corsetry had something to do with the unsmilingness!
I love your photo of the children. Look at those dresses - so sweet.
Franiam, how exciting to have all these quarters to your heritage. I am 4/4 Scottish - no variety at all...
I've been lucky to have had relatives interested in geneology and they've done the tough work for my generation. I know what you mean about the feeling of connectedness. I treasure he old pics and stories that my grandparents generation have given us.
Yes, what lovely dresses! Whose job was it, I wonder, to keep them all so white?
Ruth, what an interesting post and interesting discussion topic! My great-great-great grandfather's grave is in the small town where I grew up. It makes me feel grounded.
I was never very interested in my ancestry as a younger person. But now, I love to look for patterns, as you mentioned.
A Chinese fellow grad student once told me that her religion was ancestor worship. I didn't even know how to respond at the time, it was so foreign a concept to me. Now, however, it starts to make sense as I feel those connections with those who have gone before.
Family history is fascinating isn't it! I've spent hours at a time looking up things. But I have let it slide for a few years now. We do have the records my paternal grandfather researched...taking his side of the family back to 1635 or so in Maryland/Virginia area. We also have two trunks full of old photos from the late 1800's on....we keep telling ourselves one of these days we will get it organized, but I don't know if that will ever happen.
Great topic! I love genealogy. Your photos turned out very well taken with your camera.....that's a good way to get quick copies nowadays.
I've researched two Civil War soldiers in my ancestry by requesting military records and pension records. In the one case, with the pension record, it was a gold mine of new information to work with, besides just being very interesting to read as it gave us a glimpse into the past.
I love older photos and family stories. Thanks for sharing these.
Great photos and so interesting about your family history. My husband and I made a project out of photographing my family's old photographs (both my mother's and father's sides of the family) about 10 or 15 years ago - he has a real camera, the kind you use a light meter with and manually focus, etc. - and we set it up on a tripod and photographed these old pictures. This was before we had a scanner. They turned out really well and we framed some of them and put them up on our living room walls. Our house is old-fashioned and they go well with the decor. We even have some daguerrotypes from the mid 1800's of my mother's side of the family. It's so fascinating to look at them and realize this was a real person, and they sat for that photograph and that one moment in time was recorded.
I love this post. Family history and connections are what makes us who we are. The photos are awesome!
XOXOXOX
I love old photos and hearing about family 'roots'!!
My goodness Ruth, you look the image of your grandmother. You did an excellent job with the pics by the way. I've had some minor interest in family trees, but never enough to do the work to actually do it. I've pretty much limited myself to the internet which gives more than one might expect. My family is just so small that nobody seemed all that interested. Thanks for the look see in your family. It was most fascinating to learn about.
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